Director Denis Villeneuve will be tackling yet another epic sci-fi adaptation with Rendezvous with Rama. Villeneuve made his feature debut, but since his string of increasingly high-profile films began in the early 2010's, he has become one of the most celebrated directors of the modern age, especially when it comes to blockbuster sci-fi projects. The Canadian director first struck a nerve with his 2010 French-language drama Incendies, which he quickly followed with a trio of action thrillers: 2013's Prisoners and Enemy, both of which starred Jake Gyllenhaal, and 2015's Sicario.
In 2016, he directed the mind-bending sci-fi film Arrival, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director among its eight total nominations and one win for Sound Editing. After that film's success, he stayed in the science fiction arena, shepherding classic properties to the screen in 2017's Blade Runner 2049 and then the first of a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, which came out this October. Of the Warner Bros./Legendary slate for 2021 (which were released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max), Dune was one of the only films to cross $100 million in the domestic box office.
Per THR, Villeneuve has turned his attention toward adapting yet another classic science fiction author. The director is now attached to a film based on Arthur C. Clarke's 1973 novel Rendezvous with Rama, with Broderick Johnson & Andrew Kosove of Alcon Entertainment and Morgan Freeman & Lori McCreary of Revelations Entertainment producing. Set in the 2130s, the novel follows the story of humanity's first encounter with intelligent life from another planet when a team is sent to intercept an unidentified spaceship witnessed rocketing through space that has just entered the solar system.
Clarke is one of the most revered authors in the history of science fiction. Although his work is not frequently adapted to film, he co-wrote the classic 1968 Stanley Kubrick space opera 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is based on his short story "The Sentinel." Its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, is likewise based on his follow-up novel 2010: Odyssey 2.
Rendezvous with Rama is a project that has been in development hell since the early 2000s, when Morgan Freeman first expressed interest in bringing it to the silver screen. However, now that it has a sure-thing director like Villeneuve attached, it seems almost certain that it will finally move forward. However, fans of the novel might have to wait still longer, considering that the director is attached to Dune: Part Two and needs to fulfill his commitments to that massive blockbuster first.
Source: THR