From Deadline.com:
Paramount Pictures has acquired screen rights to the John Scalzi novel series Old Man’s War, with Wolfgang Petersen attached to direct and David Self adapting the tale into a large-scale science fiction project. Scott Stuber will produce through his Stuber Pictures banner, with Petersen also producing.
[…]
Stuber’s currently producing the Peter Berg-directed Battleship, Keanu Reeves-starrer 47 Ronin and the Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds drama Safe House.
Petersen hasn’t directed a film since the 2006 pic Poseidon. That film didn’t work, but before that, the Das Boot helmer had an enviable string of blockbusters: Troy, The Perfect Storm, Air Force One, Outbreak and In the Line of Fire.
And a synopsis, for those who haven’t read the novel:
You’re seventy-five years old, your wife is dead, and your life is winding down. What do you do next? If you’re John Perry, the answer is simple: You join the military. The Colonial Defense Forces take Earth’s senior citizens and retrofit them young, strong bodies — and then throws them into the unending war humanity is waging against other civilizations up there among the stars. John Perry is in the middle of it all and learning fast to survive, because the alternatives — for him and humanity — are grim. And it’s in the middle of this struggle for survival that Perry meets a woman who seems achingly familiar…
Old Man’s War is one of my favourite novels. It’s a wonderful companion to classics like Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and Haldeman’s The Forever War, taking the same basic premise (raw recruit in intergalactic war), but putting a more contemporary spin on the setting and some of the scientific concepts. If this ever makes it to the silver screen (which, lets be honest, it’s Hollywood and I’ll believe it when I see a trailer), I think it will be an easy transition. John Perry, the protagonist and narrator is charming and charismatic, an aspect that should transfer easily to the silver screen through some deft casting. Most amusing, though, will be the outraged Avatar fans proclaiming its concept of sleeving humans in superhuman bodies as a huge ripoff.
