David Farnor | On 09, Dec 2017

Netflix has optioned John Scalzi’s sci-fi novel Old Man’s War to develop as a feature film.

The novel is the first in a six-part series of books by the author, with the initial entry earning a nomination for a Hugo Award. The novel has, therefore, been sought-after by the industry for several years, with Paramount attempting to make a movie back in 2011, before SYFY picked up the project for a TV series. Now, Netflix has nabbed the rights and is looking to be the one who finally makes it.

Old Man’s War is set in the future and follows 75-year-old John Perry, who lives in a world where elderly people are faced with two choices: die or join the military, which transfers their minds into souped-up versions of their young bodies for fighting. When his wife dies, Perry opts to sign up for the army, meaning that he’ll never go back to Earth and will be caught up in a territorial fight for the galaxy’s remaining available planets. When he mets a soldier who looks like a younger version of a familiar face, though, his world is turned upside down.

The movie will be produced by Jon Shestack Productions and Madhouse Entertainmen, along with Scalzi. It joins a list of other projects by Scalzi that are also in development, at both FX and Working Title. It also follows a raft of sci-fi projects on Netflix’s slate, including upcoming series Altered Carbon, Duncan Jones’ Mute, sci-fi spec script Mimi from Rio and a deal to distribute Alex Garland’s Annihilation outside of America.

Add to Watchlist