Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation
Deep space is my dwelling place
The screen my destination
I only discovered the brilliance of Alfred Bester a few years ago. I’ve had a copy of The Demolished Man for long enough for it to show quite a bit of wear, but like many books in my collection it sat sadly neglected until Bester was highly recommended to me by several authoritative science fiction figures. I finally cracked the book open and loved what I found. Soon after I picked up a copy of The Stars My Destination. Bester weaves his tales strongly within the heads of his characters, which makes a potential movie adaptation really difficult, but that’s not stopping someone from trying.
According to Variety, Universal Studios and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (Derailed)are planning to bring Gully Foyle jaunting to the big screen. While there’s no word on who will be charged with writing the film, but if Derailed is any indication, Di Bonaventura is the right man to produce this picture. Gully Foyle is an incredibly dark character who, among other things, murders and rapes in his quest for revenge. You can’t bring that character to the screen lightly.
This isn’t the first attempt to bring Bester to the movies. There are several scattered scripts around Hollywood for other adaptations that never were picked up. I still have my doubts about whether this can be done or done well, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see.
