Simon Kinberg has confirmed that Ridley Scott’s next directorial project will be The Martian , with Matt Damon set to star in the forthcoming film.
Kinberg is a producer on the project, and was the man who first brought Andy Weir’s ebook to the attention of original director, Drew Goddard.
Goddard got as far as writing a script, but was forced by scheduling issues to drop out of directing the film, leaving the way clear for Scott to step into his shoes.
The film tells the story of an astronaut caught in a major dust storm after landing on Mars, which causes his crew to set off back to Earth without him, thinking him dead…
It had initially been assumed that Scott’s next project would be a sequel to Prometheus , currently pencilled in for a 2016 release. Does this mean that Fox has somebody different in mind to direct that one? We’ll have to wait and see…