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David Fincher's Sci-Fi Film Rendezvous with Rama Starring Morgan Freeman

by Alex Billington
August 21, 2007
Source: MTV

Yep, you read the title right; I hadn't heard of this movie either, but damn does it sound interesting. After Danny Boyle's Sunshine this summer, I'm painfully yearning for more and more great science fiction movies that are as incredible as Sunshine, and this sounds like it could be the next big one. Where did this news come from? MTV has an update today from Morgan Freeman, who says Rendezvous with Rama is still trying to get off the ground. The film is based off of a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, who also wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Here's the plot: A thirty-mile-long hollow cylindrical alien spaceship called Rama with mysterious origins is set adrift in our solar system by an unknown intelligence. What is it? Who built it? What is it doing in our corner of the galaxy? Morgan Freeman plays the Commander of the spaceship Endeavor, which is sent to rendezvous with this "thing from outer space to find out what it is [and] what its intentions are." So far it sounds a lot like Sphere, but in space and not under water; and given I absolutely loved Sphere, I'm already sold on this.

The report says that Freeman has been working to get this made since early in the millennium, and filmmaker David Fincher (of Se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac fame) has been set to direct since the beginning. Freeman adds that it's still on track to happen, it's just taking a little longer than expected. What are the challenges that they've been encountering? Freeman confesses, "it's a very intellectual science fiction film, a very difficult book to translate cinematically." Freeman claims that apparently it's not about actions but about thoughts. "There are no guns, no explosions. Although it's fiction, it's all based on pure science."

In the end, despite all the challenges, Freeman says "it's worth doing." And I agree with him. Just hearing what he has said about this and the fact that the amazingly visionary director David Fincher would be attached is enough to get me giddy. Now only if everything can come together and it can be made before this acting strike hits! IMDb currently has it listed for 2009, but I'm sure it's still in very early pre-production and that could move forward (or backwards) at any time.

Filed under Hype, Movie News

From around the web:

Ethan

I was so absolutely blown away by Sunshine. We need more films like it these days.
Zach

What is all of this about an impending actor strike that you keep mentioning? Fill me in.
http://www.thestopbutton.com Andrew Wickliffe

They've been talking about doing this since 1996. coming from fincher's Propaganda Films, which is long gone, isn't it? There's even a copy of the book out there with... soon to be a major motion picture starring morgan freeman, directed by david fincher. while there are no explosions or guns, it's a lot like "the land that time forgot" in space. it'd be real neat if it happened... but it isn't going to.
Michael

i have read the book and its great! i saw this was linked with Fincher ages ago and was thrilled, but i too have reservations that this book can be successfully translated to film. Here's hoping. KYUSS UK
Heckle

That ship reminds of of the one Star Trek movie with the whales! Big long tube like thing that came to Earth looking for the whales but there weren't any. LOL.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

Zach... The acting strike has been talked about for years (I think)... The Screen Actors Guild is "gearing up" for a strike that's supposed to happen sometime around mid-next year. I don't exactly know why or what, but you know why people strike, something about wages and salary and percentages. Apparently on top of that the Writers Guild is also planning to strike at the same time meaning Hollywood in general would "shut down." You can read an article here: Screen Actors Guild May Push for Strike And a recent article on Rotten Tomatoes even mentioned it. "The facts are that everyone is saying there will be [a strike]," said producer Don Murphy. "Lots of ideas are being pitched around. I suspect there will be one but the strike thing kind of confuses everyone." Basically, you'll notice how EVERY big movie aiming for release between now and early 2009 is filming... basically NOW. It's funny, everything from Avatar to Bond 22 to Harry Potter to stuff really, really far out is all trying to fit in before the strike...
Jake

This is a great series of books and I remember the film announcement a long time ago. I hope that they do end up making this but I hope they hold true and do it right.
Eric Aitala

The script is being worked on at this moment... you may hear more soon. EMA
http://ablethevoice.podomatic.com/ Tom

Actually heckle, the folks who made Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home were influenced by Clarke's Rama vessel. And Jake, hopefully the screenwriters will make the film based ONLY on the original Rendezvous With Rama and not try to include any story elements from the vastly inferior sequels. These sequels were not...repeat NOT written by Clarke, but instead were written by a JPL scientist by the name of Gentry Lee. He would write a chapter then e-mail it to Clarke who would "grade" it, then send it back to Lee for re-writing until Clarke liked it. The incredible atmosphere of the original RWR was totally lost: unlikeable characters, muddy storyline and overall poor writing style made the three sequels pretty much unreadable (to me, at least). Tom
Ethan

@Tom: I have to agree. I mostly read the sequels just for the rest of the story, though I didn't like them nearly as much as the first one. As for the movie, this will be awesome. I loved Fincher's other movies, Freeman is a good actor and this is a great book. I can hardly see it being bad, but even if it is I will still go to see it. Sure they may only have a few action scenes, but that's not the point of this movie. People often call it "hard science fiction", which I agree on but that doesn't mean you need a calculator handy and an engineering degree. I have little knowledge of physics and gravity along with other things, and I still loved the book. I would suggest this as a soundtrack for the movie, it fits perfecly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMLBjtEsOk4&feature=PlayList&p=0F71DB562CA1EC2E&index=0