Or had, anyway, since it sounds like the script is already finished and turned in.
In any case, I love me some “Forever War”, and so does Ridley Scott, who is currently trying to adapt the book into a movie. It’s going to be very interesting to see. And of course by “interesting” I mean “I hope he doesn’t FUBAR this thing up.”
The latest news on the project has author Joe Haldeman himself revealing that Scott already has a script for the movie, courtesy of “Unforgiven” writer David Webb Peoples. Or as you might better know him as the guy who wrote friggin “Blade Runner” and “12 Monkeys”. Then again, Peoples also wrote “Soldier”, so, yeah, some misses with those hits there. But oh, what hits they were!
In the post, Haldeman seems resigned to the movie not coming out exactly as he wrote it. He also says he was never asked to write the script, which is not surprising. It’s pretty rare that original book authors get any real input into the movie versions of their books. I know, it’s weird, but that’s just how Hollywood works. Usually, the author has to negotiate the right to write a draft of the script when he first sells the film rights, and the producers will usually just come in and replace him with their own screenwriter later on anyway after the author has turned in his draft.
Don’t try to understand it: it’s Hollywood.