Spaceless (Orignal Screenplay by Jeff Vintar)

[aiman04]

Synopsis:

A man wakes up inside a spacesuit tumbling helplessly through space, with a computer designed to keep him company until his air runs out, trying to solve the mystery of his death.

Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenplay: Jeff Vintar

Tidbits:

Spaceless is an original screenplay by Jeff Vintar sold to Fox 2000 in 1995. From there it moved to Fox Animation and finally to the main live action division of 20th Century Fox. Gore Verbinski was attached to direct but the project fell into development hell. After five years of inactivity, Vintar reacquired the rights to the script through the WGA's little-known reacquisition clause, and took the project to Gore Verbinski's Blindwink Productions and Universal in 2009.

Spaceless has become almost legendary in insider circles due to its reputation and long tortuous twenty-three year struggle through Hollywood's "development hell." It is commonly cited on-line as one of the Holy Grail scripts most sought after by screenplay collectors.

Was offered to screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) as a rewrite job by befuddled studio executives several times over the long years, to which Walker would always reply: "It doesn't need a rewrite. Just make it!"

Cary Fukunaga once signed on to direct, saying he had never read an original script that "operated on so many levels."

Gore Verbinski might commit to this now that he's no longer attached to Beat the Reaper.

[Elgie]

Wow. I remember reading about this years ago when Fukunaga first signed on. I think he mentioned that, after exiting the project, the script had been enough to inspire him to write something in the same genre by himself.

Sounds like a fairly inexpensive film by today standards, though I guess that’s the way for projects with no pre-existing notions for general audiences. Hope it sees the light of day. I mean, if we can get something like Arrival then, surely...