Looks like Ridley Scott and Jacob Elordi have a plane to catch.
Gladiator II hasn’t even left theaters yet, but we’re already hearing that Scott—who’s 87, and seems determined to spend his twilight years making other, younger directors feel self-conscious about their own productivity—has not only lined up his next project (a Bee Gees biopic, apparently) but also the project after his next project.
Variety reported this week that Jacob Elordi will replace Paul Mescal as the lead in Scott’s The Dog Stars. Here’s everything we know about the film…
What is The Dog Stars?
The film will be an adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 book of the same name, in which a man called Hig is living in an almost-empty world, courtesy of a virus that seems to have killed off everyone except him, his neighbor, and his dog. Oh, and he’s got this plane that he likes to fly around—only on short journeys at first (he hasn’t got much fuel left), but eventually he’s tempted to roam a little further, and see what might be out there beyond the horizon.
The book was received extremely well in fantasy/sci-fi book circles and beyond, winning the praise of such esteemed writers as Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn and The New Yorker’s John Seabrook, so it looks like we might just be in for a big old treat here.
Who’s signed up for The Dog Stars?
Well, as previously mentioned, it initially looked like Mescal was in, but he’s now been swapped out for Elordi. (Mescal’s involvement in Sam Mendes’s upcoming quadrilogy of Beatles biopics seems to have ruled him out.)
So Elordi steps in to play protagonist Hig. It’s a big move for him, and along with roles in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein and the lead opposite Margot Robbie in a new Wuthering Heights adaptation from Elordi’s Saltburn collaborator Emerald Fennell, it perhaps cements his transition into Hollywood blockbuster territory.
Aside from Elordi, we have Ridley directing, and the writer adapting Heller’s book into a screenplay will be Mark L. Smith, whose previous screenwriting credits include recent summer blockbuster Twisters and DiCaprio Oscar-winner The Revenant.
When will The Dog Stars come out?
Now there’s a question. Since Ridley’s got the aforementioned Bee Gees movie on deck and Elordi is about to start shooting Wuthering Heights, one imagines The Dog Stars won’t be here for quite a while. Maybe 2027 or 2028? But hey—the world will (probably) still be here by then.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.
