Denis Villeneuve to Film ‘Rendezvous with Rama’

Exciting film news for fans of Arthur C. Clarke. Denis Villeneuve, the director of the latest Dune movie, as well as the flicks Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, is apparently set to film a version of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. This is about a group of astronauts exploring a mysterious alien space habitat that has entered the solar system. Morgan Freeman is set to produce it along with Robert Johnson and Ender Kossoff. Villeneuve is filming it for Alcon Entertainment, the company he worked with on his films The Prisoner and the Blade Runner sequel. In addition to this project, Villeneuve is also set to direct the second part of his Dune movie, as well as episodes of a TV series about the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, which he is also set to produce. Johnson and Kossoff said that Rendezvous with Rama was a very intelligent work, which raises many questions and is perfect for our time and was fitted to Villeneuve’s sensibilities and his passion for science fiction. There have been off and on plans to film Rama since Freeman acquired the rights in the early 2000s, and at one time David Fincher was set to direct before he moved on to other projects. Despite the pandemic, Dune is doing very well globally and is approaching taking $400 million around the world. And this week, Villeneuve himself won three awards, including Best Film Drama and Best Director.

Here’s the report from Savage Entertainment.

There are a number of short films of Rendezvous with Rama on YouTube, which give a taste of what the book and the space artefact it describes are like. Here’s one from the Vancouver Film School.

It’ll be interesting to see how Hollywood handles Rendezvous with Rama, as it is very much a movie of exploration rather than action or combat. The human explorers don’t meet the aliens who built the habitat, although they do encounter the robots and other machines left behind to maintain it. The book’s a favourite among Arthur C. Clarke fans, and I think it’s because of the detailed, scientifically credible description of what such an alien space habitat would be like.

Tags: Arrival, Arthur C. Clarke, Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve, Dune, Ender Kossoff, Morgan Freeman, Rendezvous with Rama, Robert Johnson, Vancouver Film School