“”I first pursued Forever War 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since. It’s a science-fiction epic, a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner, built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise,” Ridley Scott explains to Variety why, years after he first tried to obtain the movie rights to Joe Haldeman’s classic science fiction novel, he’s made another (this time successful) attempt. With the collapse of a proposed mini-series (which might have been a better format for the story, to be honest) it was easier to finally make a deal for the film rights to the book. I’m normally cautious when a film adaptation of an important book is announced, but since this one involves Ridley Scott I’m actually quite excited at the idea.
(French edition of the graphic novel adaptation by Marvano and Haldeman of the Forever War as La Guerre éternelle, published by Air Libre. I wonder if NBM will reprint their English language version in light of this news?)
The Hugo and Nebula award-winning Forever War involves the cream of humanity drafted to fight an alien war they don’t understand only to find out that time dilation due to near lightspeed travel means that a posting of a few months actually equates to decades passing back home on Earth, with them returning from an uncaring military to a society that has changed and now feels alien to them, which many critics have ascribed to author Joe Haldeman’s own experiences as a Vietnam veteran; along with Heinlein’s Starship Troopers its one of the modern classics of warfare in science fiction and a book well deserving of space on anyone’s shelf (put it next to Catch-22)
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