It seems that as Ridley Scott enters his twilight years, he’s becoming more interested in exploring the sort of genre films that he was first synonymous with — films such as the new Alien film and now The Passage.
What is The Passage, you might ask? Well, screenwriter John Logan is adapting the novel by Jordan Ainsley, and it’s a vampire story. How unique. If anyone but Scott’s name were being lobbied about for the director’s chair, I wouldn’t bother writing up this news at all.
Fox has owned the film rights to the book for two years, but the book’s writer is almost unknown. However, Variety’s scoop on the plot of the film does sound fairly novel:
“Terminally ill patients become healthy after they are bitten by bats in South America, and the government conducts secret tests on human subjects to see if the virus can cure illness. The result is an apocalyptic unleashing of bloodthirsty vampire test subjects that include death row inmates.”
John Logan scripted Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai, The Aviator, and Gladiator. Thus, while not attached yet, whatever Logan produces will undoubtedly be up Scott’s alley.
