io9 has confirmed an earlier report that Ridley Scott will direct an adaptation of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian future novel. Scott says that Leonardo DiCaprio approached him about adapting the book, and it looks like he will star in the film as well. This is exciting news; not only does it herald the return to science fiction for the director of Blade Runner and Alien, it also means that Leo, who is working on a live action adaptation of Akira, has two dystopian future projects in progress.
Brave New World is one of my favorite books, and Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies, for many of the same reasons, but I’m still having trouble getting excited about this news. Scott’s work on Blade Runner was amazing, but that was 26 years ago, and he hasn’t made a science fiction film since. I’d like to believe he can jump back in the saddle, but considering what he’s been up to for the past two and a half decades, I have my doubts. While the quality of Scott’s filmography is admittedly debatable, it’s safe to say he’s made some pretty terrible movies, Kingdom of Heaven and A Good Year come to mind. Even his films that have some potential end up falling short. American Gangster, while not a bad movie, felt like only like a sufficient execution of a script Scorsese would have passed over in the nineties.
Even if Scott can get his Blade Runner mojo working again for Brave New World, it could still be really bad. Blade Runner and Brave New World are very different stories, set in very different worlds. Blade Runner took cues from Neuromancer and the dystopian stories of Philip K. Dick to create a dingy future noir, complete with brutal violence and assassinations. Brave New World, on the other hand, takes place in a world where technological advances and a strict caste system have sanitized society. People are conditioned to desire nothing more than their predetermined station in life, dutifully ingesting a drug called soma to dull any inappropriate desires.
While Blade Runner used rich visuals to convey the bleak state of the world, Brave New World features nearly unfilmable social situations. Family structures have been abolished and children are grown in futuristic farms. Sex is nothing but a social activity for the sterile citizens, and they are encouraged to start young. Bernard, an agitator who has the courage to suspect that something is wrong with this way of life, begins to be slightly disturbed by constantly seeing groups of children having orgies. How are you going to film that, Ridley?
Brave New World also differs from Blade Runner in that there is much less violence. There’s a riot scene that could be pretty cool, but it’s safe to say that the action would look nothing like Black Hawk Down. In one scene a child is beaten senseless as part of a ritual. In another, a man flies into a rage and beats a woman he has unrequited feelings for, in front of a crowd of on-lookers. Having not been exposed to violence in their sanitized lives, this scene sends them into a frenzy, which of course results in a massive orgy.
The Brave New World film will either be the most ambitious porno in history, or it will be scrubbed of its controversial content. I’m not sure which would be worse.
Of course, on the page Brave New World reads nothing like porn –– on the contrary, it’s satire. Huxley, a Brit, was inspired to write it after seeing what he viewed as degenerate American youth culture and runaway industrialization on a trip to the States. It’s a dark comedy with no punch lines. In some ways it’s more similar to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil than to Blade Runner. Which raises another problem: Ridley Scott is an extremely serious filmmaker. While Nicolas Cage attempts to get some laughs in Matchstick Men, the heart of that film, and all Scott’s films, is undeniably earnest. In Brazil, on the other hand, we’re encouraged to laugh at the future, despite the fact that it’s soul-crushing and bleak. Huxley had a similar goal in mind.
I do have some hope for DiCaprio’s involvement, however. His acting skills have steadily improved over the years, and the fact that he’s taken the initiative to produce both Brave New World and Akira adaptations is a good sign. We haven’t seen a lot from Leo the Producer, but there are more interesting projects on the horizon. In Atari, set for a 2009 release, Leo will play Nolan Bushnell, godfather on the video game industry. He’s also producing The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Scorsese will direct, and Leo will play the budding young president. Sounds good. I wonder if it’s too late for Leo to offer Brave New World to Scorsese? Now that would be a dystopian science fiction movie.
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