Blade Runner fans are going to love this one. In an interview published in Eclipse Magazine, Ridley Scott has promised a return to science fiction. The route is a secret for now, however. In answer to the oft-asked question ‘will you do more sci-fi?’ Scott responded:

I am going to do one. I waited for a book for 20 years and I have got the book. I am not going to tell you what the book is but that film is going to probably be written within the next month. That will definitely be what I do next after Nottingham, the Robin Hood film that I am doing now in England.

(UPDATE: According to the LA Times, the book is probably Brave New World. The paper says Scott will direct Leondardo DiCaprio from a script by Andrew Nicchols. That’s perhaps not the conceptual sort of sci-fi people were hoping for, but the team is impressive. Thanks to sanityscream for the update tip.)

And what about Blood Meridian? A year ago Scott was talking about cracking the story in order to fashion a script. That’s evidently been accomplished, though we’ve got no better idea now if the film will actually happen.

We got it down as a screenplay and the problem is that it is so savage. But that’s what it is. If you did it properly it would be an X-certificate. But you can’t apologise for the violence and you can’t quantify the violence and you shouldn’t try to explain the violence. It is what it is…an exercise in brutality, savagery and violence.

I’d love to see the more patient Ridley of American Gangster take on the violence of Cormac McCarthy; I can’t imagine two hours of the fast-cutting Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven style being anything less than painful. Then again, that might be exactly the point. Assuming it ever happens, could Blood Meridian be Scott’s The Wild Bunch?

Scott is so prolific these days that keeping track of his slate requires entirely new forms of math, or a better calendar program at least. House of Lies (formerly Body of Lies) with Crowe and DiCaprio is basically finished, and Scott will soon be moving on to Nottingham, also with Crowe. Those other five or six projects you’re wondering about? We are too.