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Scott Derrickson Directing Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos

by Alex Billington
January 30, 2009

Back in April of last year, we announced that Warner Brothers had picked up the rights to Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos series of sci-fi books. It looks like they've found their director - Scott Derrickson of The Day the Earth Stood Still most recently. While there are four total novels in the series, Derrickson will be directing a film that combines the first two books, "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion". The story is set in the distant future, and regards a space war that threatens Hyperion, a planet known for Time Tombs - large artifacts that can move through time and are guarded by a gruesome monster called the Shrike.

In my original article on the Hyperion Cantos, I specifically said, "Dan Simmons' world in Hyperion seems grand enough to fulfill my desires, it will just come down to who they get as a director and whether Sands' script is any good." While I wasn't the biggest fan of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I do think Derrickson has a lot of potential, and if anything, working on that film gave him a chance to learn and develop his sci-fi directing. As long as the script by Trevor Sands is as "coherent and unconfusing" as promised, then we might have the next great sci-fi film coming up in the next few years to look forward to. Thoughts?

Explore tags: Movie News, Opinions

avi

Finally!!! I never understand why it did take so long to make a movie from the hyperion saga! It's the best sience fiction novel ever written on this earth and Dan Simmons is a genius who's work is nobelprice worthy! Onley a fan from Dan Simmons work can direct the movie and i know Scott Dericcson is a fan from the first our! I can't wait to watch it on big screen and see the sfx guys beat star wars and the matrix because hyperion needs onley the best!
JanK

I think it will be very difficult to make these books into a movie - but I hope for the best The Hyperion Saga are my favorite books by a long shot, so this comes as a vey nice surprice.
Munson

Just finished the second book so this was a nice surprise. It'll be tough to squeeze the pilgrims' stories into one movie though.
LeftHanded

Nice! Dan Simmons is great. I hope 'The Terror' is down the road someday.
N

Extremely difficult to do well, but if they pull it off it could be amazing. Read it for the first time when I was 13 or 14 and its still my favorite science fiction series of all time.
mrbobbyboy

This is the greatest work of Science Fiction ever, and a near impossible story to convert to the screen. If they announce that it'll be two films I'll feel a LOT happier as the pilgrims tales deserve the space to breath. It has the potential to reinvent sci-fi in the cinema but, having seen the relatively dismal 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', I'm unconvinced that Derrickson is the right man to helm this project. Give it to Snyder. He understands the page-to-screen process better than almost anyone working in the business at the mo.
Tom

Might be the most boring of the space sagas, but I don't care, JUST GIVE ME MORE SF!!! Pleeease Hollywood, more strange, beautiful and far far off in the future and less of the rest.
http://louderlouder.wordpress.com Andrew

HOLY SHIT YES. The Hyperion Cantos is the best series of books in any genre, ever. Period. I cannot wait.
Exelion

Please, dont destroyer my fantasy!! I am Japanese and The Hyperion Cantos is the best series of books like Andrew. But nine cases out of ten, that kind of movie ends in failure. Americans are too positive.
Phoenix

I have I feeling they'll mess this up, 'cause hollywood does exactly that most of the time, because they work for PROFIT. For something to be profitable it has to be simple so that the average Joe could understand it and Hyperion is anything BUT simple! Making it easily understadable but keeping the depth and philosophy(and psychology) of the book is an extremely hard thing to do and I fear it is impossible to do in just one movie. Anyway, Hyperion is one of my favourite books and if they mess it up, they're dead, I can be worse than Shrike when I get really angry. xD
http://www.dreamlinks.com/ Dating in Toronto

Humm Looks like i'll have to go pick up the books then.
jamie

oh god... please don't ruin this.
Munson

There are always remakes. Let's hope for one already?
dave

no,never gonna work.the story of the pilgrimage alone would take a single movie.hollywood is going to turn the greatest scifi novel into a dumb,loud cgi driven pile of garbage.this is a grand epic story that requires atleast a trilogy to come close to the books.i'm so sad that the movie will probably turn people off from reading the books for the first time
http://www.humbleabodegames.com I3ladeDragon

I never speak out when it comes to movie translations of various media. That said, I feel so strongly about the Hyperion Cantos that I feel the need to post everywhere that combining two books into one movie is a bad idea! There is just WAY too much essential material in both books to go removing or hacking away at content. If they intend on cramming both books into one movie, it better be a six hour movie or I will be greatly disappointed. I don't mind the director they have chosen... just so long as they don't mess with the story in a severe way like what I am feeling will happen if they go through with this! Not to mention the fact that with one movie per book, if the movies are done correctly, it means more money in the long run for Hollywood and will please the fans of the series more as well!!!
Steve

Agreed with dragon. I just finished both books and feel the sheer scope of the novels will be utterly lost over three-hours in a movie theater, not just from a standpoint of the plot, but the setting that Dan Simmons creates is so massive as to render a film-adaptation useless. This is what happened to "Dune"; even after re-reading "Dune" this summer, I watched the movie and it is simply terrible. It does no justice to the novels. It pains me to think if the movie is not done well that these amazing books will be sullied by a Hollywood bomb. While I'm excited that Hyperion will be translated to the screen, it pains me to think that it could become something as bad as, well, "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Jean

I sure hope these guys read these pages and do the right thing. If it was possible to do it for Lord of the Rings they should sure be able to do it for this one. I agree, 3 movies minimum. If the f...Up this, I will lance them from orbit |-)
Delia

I am afraid, too. I am afraid that, event if it's a great movie, lots of us will be disappointed, mostly because each one translates the written words into different images in his/her head. Nevertheless, there are factual things that should remained untouched. They shouldn't change anything in the stories even if compressing the two Hyperions' in one movie. I guess the movie will be about The Fall of Hyperion with flashbacks to the story of each pilgrim? Anyway, for God's shake, please respect the books. Please respect their author. And their readers.