Gladiator II may not have even entered the cinematic arena just yet, but that isn't stopping Ridley Scott from turning his attention towards his next team up with star Paul Mescal. In fact, just weeks after we learned the 86 year old filmmaker is already toying with ideas for a Mescal led Gladiator 3, today we're getting word that Scott is circling another project with his newfound Irish muse. According to Deadline, Scott has set an adaptation of Peter Heller's post-apocalyptic bestseller The Dog Stars as his next film at 20th Century Studios — and Mescal is in advanced talks to star.
The Revenant and Twisters scribe Mark L. Smith has penned the screenplay for the movie, which is prospectively set to shoot as early as next Spring, once Mescal has finished his run starring in the upcoming Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. Set in the aftermath of a pandemic which has decimated a near-future America, Heller's book centres around Hig, a civilian pilot who lives a lonely life in a Coloradan aircraft hangar with only a dog and gruff ex-marine Bangley for company. Said pilot's situation changes when an enigmatic transmission comes through his old aircraft, prompting a daring hunt to reach its source and rediscover the world beyond his self-imposed borders.
Though we have no official casting confirmation as of yet, it would be safe to expect Mescal would fill the Hig role — a character who's a bit of an old soul, a bit of a poet, dappled in melancholy yet charming and sincere is well within Mescal's acting wheelhouse. But as for the other players, that's anyone's guess at this stage. What we do know however is that whilst this probably means Scott's planned Bee Gees biopic won't get grooving until late 2025 at the earliest now, we have at least got confirmation of two more Scott Free productions in the pipeline to look forward to. And with Scott and Mescal hitting it off, a prestige writer aboard, and killer source material, The Dog Stars is already setting itself up to be the mutt's nuts.