After the worldwide success of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Hollywood turned its scripting eyes to fantasy books. Yet, after a series of big-budget duds like Eragon and The Golden Compass studio executives moved onto superheroes. Now, such big-screen releases have come full circle with a new lineup of amazing speculative fiction adaptations.
Here are our favourites:
Gemini Man
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is reportedly pushing filmmaking tech to the forefront with this action-adventure flick. Loosely based on the works of H G Wells, it features Will Smith—who plays an ageing assassin who is being targeted by his own clone.
Chaos Walking
Patrick Ness’ The Knife of Never Letting Go is the source material for this sci-fi adaptation. With Tom Holland aka Spiderman and Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley on board, this film is set in a dystopian future where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts.
Forever War
Joe Haldeman’s groundbreaking book about a soldier stuck in an interplanetary war took the world by storm in the ’70s. Now, despite the lack of a solid release date, prolific filmmaker Ridley Scott Warner Bros hopes to recreate that magic.
Dune
Slated for a 2020 release, Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve helms this project. Featuring Aquaman star Jason Momoa and Call Me By Your Name actor Timothée Chalamet, the story is said to reflect writer Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic.