After Gladiator II, Ridley Scott Is Taking Paul Mescal to the Apocalypse

Ridley Scott is almost 90 years old and the man never stops. He’s about to release Gladiator II, the sequel to one of his most acclaimed movies—and at one point, he was going to follow it up with a film about legendary 1970s band the Bee Gees. Instead though, Scott has decided to squeeze in another film beforehand, one that takes place at the end of the world, and he’s doing it with his newest Gladiator star.

Deadline confirms that Ridley Scott is re-teaming with Paul Mescal to make an adaptation of the book The Dog Stars by Peter Heller for 20th Century Fox. The film is set after a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity where two unlikely survivors—a civilian pilot and a Marine war vet—live together with their dog. One day, they hear a mysterious radio signal that could mean hope, so they take off and fly beyond the borders of their safety zone, hoping to solve the mystery.

According to the trade, Scott decided to make The Dog Stars because he wanted to work with Mescal again and Mescal had an opening in his schedule early next year, after a short stint on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire. Mark L. Smith, who co-wrote The Revenant and the recent hit Twisters, adapted Heller’s book.

That book, by the way, won all sorts of awards and is apparently excellent, which makes sense as it’s Ridley Freaking Scott directing the adaptation. At 86 he’s still got the same passion and vision he had when he was making Blade Runner and Alien almost 50 years ago. He’s simply one of the best directors to ever step behind a film camera. In recently years, Scott not only made Gladiator II, he made one of his biggest films ever with Napoleon, revisited the Alien franchise with Covenant and Prometheus, and adapted another fantastic sci-fi novel, The Martian. So if anyone can casually make a post-apocalytpic drama before tackling the band behind “Staying’ Alive,” while also developing new Alien projects and god knows what else, it’s Scott.

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