We’ve seen every other sci-fi classic transfered to the silver screen so it was only a matter of time before Aldous Huxley’s brilliant “Brave New World” made it to the chopping block. Thankfully, this adaptation appears to be in good hands.
Huxley’s 1932 novel (trust me, it doesn’t read like it dates back to the 30s) takes place in a dystopian society where babies are biologically engineered and “hatched”, sleep learning plays a huge role in education and class segregation is law. This is no “1984″ (though many comparisons have been drawn between the two) but Huxley’s novel was and continues to be a visionary masterwork and only the tip of his extensive and brilliant writing.
Universal Studios has been trying to make the film for years but according to the Times Online, the studio’s wrangling over the terms of Huxley’s will have finally been settled and the long dormant project is finally moving ahead. Visionary director Ridley Scott has long been interested in directing the project and according to the article, the film has yet another big name championing for it: Leonardo DiCaprio who will play the key role of John the Savage.
Sounds like the dust of the legalities is just starting to clear but we’re likely to start seeing some major announcements coming from Universal in the next few months. At this point I’m curious to see who will step up to the challenge of writing the screenplay and more importantly, who they’ll cast in some of the major roles.
awesome. not a huge fan of the book but I always thought it could make for an interesting film… that and it is the most relevant dystopic vision for our times. As cool as 1984 is, we were never going to be crushed by a totaltarian enemy… we were to be enslaved by our laziness, our neglect, our want of simplicity, order, and harmony. Pick your soma, today’s market is built upon it.
Love Huxley. Excited to hear of the project, but I think it could be hard to pull off. Look what was done with The Island…
Absolutely love the book, just brilliant, but as far as dystopian novels go, I always felt this would be one of the more difficult ones to adapt. Still, I’ve imagined it, of course. And DiCaprio on board? All the better. Wonder who they would get to play Bernard, a role just as important. Or Lenina for that matter. As long as they don’t try to turn this into a mindless action movie (i.e. The Island) and they keep the tone and spirit of the book, I’m all for it. There will definitely have to be some changes (i.e. kids humping the hell out of each other), but I hope they don’t stray too far from the source material. John the Savage and Bernard Marx are two extremely cool, complex, interesting characters.
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
Lastly, I wonder how close this will come to the release date of Darabont’s Fahrenheit 451?
I have always loved Brave New World I would really like to see what it will be like if Scott gets to direct it. Interesting that two classic dystopias are again being adapted for the screen–the other being Fahrenheit 451, of course.
I suspect the suits will put pressure on Scott to change the ending.