Simmons' ILIUM becomes Digital Domain's

Movie project in the works

By Patrick Sauriol     January 09, 2004
Source: Variety

Science fiction writer Dan Simmons has sold the movie option to his latest book, ILIUM, and its forthcoming sequel OLYMPOS to Digital Domain and Barnet Bain Films. The two firms will package a "visual representation" pitch of the proposed movie franchise and begin shopping it around to prospective directors, stars and studios hoping to attract collaborators.

Simmons' ILIUM is set on Mars in the future where the Greek gods have recreated the Trojan War and play it out with resurrected Greek and Trojan soldiers, with the greatest philosophical and scientific minds from Earth's history ordered to watch the battle and then comment on it to the gods. Meanwhile, those on Earth are undergoing a quest for humanity's true origins while in Jupiter orbit a group of sentient robots (who are also fans of Shakespeare) are voyaging to Mars to learn the mystery behind a cosmic riddle. Just as Simmons drew inspiration from Thomas Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES and Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER when he wrote his HYPERION novels, he's using Homer's epic ILIAD poem as the launching point for this ambitious new sci-fi epic.

ILIUM has just been released to bookstores. The sequel, OLYMPOS, will be published in 2005. As part of the deal Simmons will also write the screenplay for the movie.


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