Scott Derrickson is going to be a busy guy. Two weeks ago he was hired by Marvel to direct their upcoming Doctor Strange film and now Heat Vision is reporting that he and his Sinister co-writer C. Robert Cargill will be taking on scripting duties for MGM’s planned Outer Limits film.
While the original Outer Limits television series from the 1960s was a weekly anthology show, the film will not be a collection of short stories in the way that the 1983 Twilight Zone film was. Instead, it will be adapting one of the show’s most iconic episodes, “Demon With A Glass Hand.” Written by science-fiction author Harlan Ellison, “Demon” tells the story of an amnesiac soldier from the future with a computerized hand being hunted by aliens.
Like he did with the news of his landing the Doctor Strange directorial gig, Derrickson confirmed the news on twitter.
My screenwriting future has LIMITS: http://t.co/YSLGAj2XCY pic.twitter.com/qgd96byjAn
— Scott Derrickson (@scottderrickson) June 19, 2014
Conceivably, Derrickson and Cargill will be working on this while Jon Spaihts gets to work on the Doctor Strange script.
While some viewed Outer Limits as a Twilight Zone knock off, I think that sells the series short. As the underdog, it took more chance with its stories, and they always seem to have a more off-kilter sensibility to them than the more moralistic stories on Twilight Zone. If this proves to be a hit for MGM, they do have a treasure trove of great stories to mine for a potential franchise. And may I suggest the episode “The Zanti Misfits” for the first sequel?
MGM Hires Scott Derrickson And C. Robert Cargill To Write OUTER LIMITS Film http://t.co/0h2MEWUYWa