According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony’s Columbia Pictures has acquired the rights to make an Unearthed movie, based on the upcoming YA novel written by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner. The sci-fi fantasy book is described as Tomb Raider meets Indiana Jones in space. Veteran sci-fi director Doug Liman (Jumper, The Bourne Identity) will direct from a screenplay by Jez and John Henry Butterworth (Spectre), who previously worked with Liman on Edge of Tomorrow and Fair Game.
Here’s the official Goodreads synopsis for Unearthed, which will be released in January 2018:
When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying’s advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.
For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study… as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don’t loot everything first. Mia and Jules’ different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.
In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race’s secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race…
Unearthed will be produced by Tyler Thompson of Cross Creek Pictures, which acquired the rights last year. The company also made Liman’s upcoming Tom Cruise drama American Made.
Liman’s next project is another YA adaptation, Chaos Walking, which will star Daisy Ridley for Lionsgate.
