It looks like Bradley Cooper has been taking some of that stuff from Limitless. Not content with preparing for starring roles in Paradise Lost and The Crow, Cooper has also written a spec script for Warners, adapting Dan Simmons' intricate and bloody marvellous Hyperion sci-fi novels. "I'm trying to get things started," says Cooper. "I said to [rights holder] Graham King 'I know this is very audacious, but...'"
The Hyperion sequence, modelled on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and channelling Boccaccio and Keats, deals with an intergalactic war against the titular planet, which does a nice line in energy trees, time-travelling artefacts and dangerous beasties. It follows seven pilgrims, alternately taking each of their viewpoints, as they undertake a journey to end the conflict.
But that's a nutshell far too small for the job, and the scale of the project, with its multiple intertwining plot strands and Big Themes, has had Hyperion in development hell for a number of years. Departed producer King picked up the rights and started setting the film up at Warners in 2008, with Trevor Sands taking a crack at the screenplay by attempting to somehow narrow the focus. Scott Derrickson (The Day the Earth Stood Still) came aboard as director in early 2009.
There's been little movement since then, but it seems likely that Derrickson remains aboard,* since he's was also once attached to Paradise Lost (it's now been taken on by Alex Proyas). Did some conversations with his potential leading man turn to some fanboy enthusing about Simmons? Whatever the catalyst, Cooper's script is now in the hands of Warners and GK Films, and, he hopes, will lead to further drafts and limitless possibilities...
*Although Cooper does say he'd love to direct Hyperion himself...