Fans of proper sci-fi*, rejoice - not only is Ridley Scott returning to make us another slice of future fiction, but he's doing it with Joe Haldeman's classic The Forever War, which he accurately describes as "a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner" and which has a frankly kickass sci-fi premise.
The story follows a group of soldiers, but in particular William Mandella and his friend Marygay, conscripted into the military following an attack on human colonies by the alien Taurans. After gruelling training on Earth, he and his companions are sent through a wormhole-like phenomenon to fight - but the vast distances involved mean that each time they return to Earth, decades or centuries of local time have passed and society has massively changed, even though the soldiers have only experienced weeks or months of subjective time. It's like Star Trek or Star Wars without the suspension of disbelief.
Scott wanted to make the film 25 years ago, but rights issues prevented him from doing so at that point, so this will be his first sci-fi movie since the double whammy of Alien and Blade Runner. He's producing through his Scott Free company, and planning on hiring a writer at once, but we guess that this will come after Nottingham on his To Do list, and perhaps after the thriller Child 44 and fashion family drama Gucci as well. But however far away it seems (subjectively) let's hope he does go ahead with it, because it's a fascinating book.
*We all know that mere monsters-in-space stories and superhero tales are not hard science fiction, after all.