Warner Brothers picks up HYPERION movie with Bradley Cooper producing

Warner Brothers has put the Dan Simmons SF novel Hyperion into development as a feature film, with Bradley Cooper helming the project for his own production company as executive producer. So far, Cooper has not committed to starring in the project.

Originally published in 1989, Hyperion is an SF novel inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Set in the 28th Century with a war brewing between the Hegemony of Man and the Ousters, a nomadic race of humans living in arkships, seven individuals are summoned to the remote world of Hyperion. Hyperion is infamously home to the Shrike, a godlike entity who roams the planet, killing people for unknown reasons or hanging their still-living forms on a giant mechanical tree. The seven pilgrims each relate their story and interest in the Shrike on their journey. The story continues in The Fall of Hyperion (1990), Endymion (1996) and The Rise of Endymion (1997), though the latter two novels are generally considered inferior to the first two. 

Bradley Cooper has long been a fan of the novel, having planned to direct it himself in 2011 before developing it with SyFy as a mini-series in 2015. Cooper's commitment to the project in 2011, when he was best-known for the Hangover series of comedy films, felt somewhat random. However, since then he has expanded his repertoire by writing, directing and starring in the acclaimed remake of A Star is Born (2018) and producing Joker (2019), considerably enhancing his Hollywood credentials.

For their part, Warner Brothers might have been intrigued by the novel's blanket critical acclaim since release, its well-realised SF universe and its three sequels giving it serious franchise potential, whilst its unusual structure and artistic credibility might make it a fitting thematic follow-up to their Dune project with Denis Villeneuve (the second part of which was greenlit last week).

The film hasn't been fully greenlit yet, though, with Warner Brothers now searching for a director to bring the project to the screen; intriguingly, Cooper hasn't chosen it as the follow-up to A Star is Born, perhaps preferring someone with greater vfx experience.

Bradley Cooper's HYPERION adaption now a mini-series at SyFy

Four years ago, Bradley Cooper was reportedly interested in directing a movie based on Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos novels. The project disappeared into development hell and many people assumed that was that.

However, Cooper, now a much more well-known actor thanks to roles in movies such as American Sniper, has used his newfound starpower to get Hyperion back on track. The project has also - thankfully - transformed into a TV series. Itamar Moses, a writer on Boardwalk Empire, will write and produce the series with Cooper on board as executive producer (it is unclear if Cooper will also direct some episodes).

The Hyperion Cantos is set in the distant future and relates the journey of seven pilgrims to the planet Hyperion, where they must confront the enigmatic creature known as the Shrike to uncover the secrets of the "Time Tombs", which are threatening to open and trigger a devastating war.

It is unclear if this will be a one-off mini-series based on just Hyperion itself, or will include the sequel The Fall of Hyperion in some manner. Dan Simmons also wrote two further novels in the series, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, set 275 years after the events of the first two books.

Bradley Cooper wants to direct the HYPERION movie

Actor Bradley Cooper, best-known for his role in The Hangover and its recent sequel (as well as The A-Team movie), has said he wants to write and direct a movie based on Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos novels. Apparently he's already written a treatment and spoken to the people that currently hold the rights.

Could this guy be bringing the Shrike to the big screen?

Interesting. Cooper recently also starred in Limitless, an adaptation of an arguably-SF techno-thriller, but Hyperion would be many orders of magnitude more complex to turn into a movie. However, if Cooper's plans mean one film for Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion (previous rumours suggested that producers wanted to combine them into one two-hour film), that'd be a step in the right direction.

So far this is a hope and little more, but it's nevertheless interesting that someone with some Hollywood clout is talking up the project. Done faithfully, this could be a very different kind of SF movie.

The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Fall of Hyperion is the second novel in the four-volume Hyperion Cantos, although it does effectively resolve the storylines opened up in Hyperion. When the first book ended, the pilgrims had arrived at the Valley of the Time Tombs on Hyperion where each was supposed to confront the Shrike and petition it for a wish. However, one of their number, Het Masteen, had vanished without a trace. At the same time, the 'barbarian' Ousters are launching a massive assault on the Hyperion system which the Hegemony of Man's space fleet, FORCE, has proven unable to repulse. All eyes in the Hegemony turn to the Hyperion system where the fates of billions will be decided.

The novel proceeds along two parallel paths. In the first, we see events unfolding on Hyperion as the surviving pilgrims explore the Time Tombs. In the second, we follow Hegemony CEO Gladstone as she plans the defence of the Hegemony of Man against both the Ousters and the AI TechnoCore, humanity's extremely unreliable ally. Both storylines are related through a second 'cybrid' based on the poet Keats, who is telepathically linked to Brawne Lamia, one of the pilgrims on Hyperion, and has also been called into the advise the CEO.

Fall of Hyperion is therefore a somewhat different book to the first. Much bigger and more explosive events are depicted than in the first book. This is definitely a less character-intense book, although it could be argued that the original Hyperion did such a good job of defining the characters we don't really need to delve further into their skulls. Fall of Hyperion is, however, more action-packed and much faster paced, developing into a real page-turner as the book proceeds. In particular, Gladstone becomes a fascinating character, her decisions at the end of the book likely to doom her to infamy for all time, despite the necessity of her actions.

There are a few more problems than there were with Hyperion. The Keats angle in the first novel was interesting and allowed Simmons to explore his obvious love of the poet quite thoroughly. However, having a second Keats avatar pretty much relate the entire story of the second novel is a massive overkill. If you have no interest in the poet, there are long stretches of this second novel that are just extremely tedious. Also, after the massive build-up to galactic apocalypse with the promise of billions dying and humanity falling into a huge dark age, the ramifications of 'the fall' are seriously downplayed. Perhaps the next book in the series, Endymion, which picks the narrative up some 200 years later, will do a better job of expanding on this, but it feels like Simmons pulled his punches at the end of the book.

That said, Fall of Hyperion is an enjoyable, at times gripping science fiction novel and a worthy sequel to Hyperion. Well recommended.

The Fall of Hyperion (****) is available from Gollancz in the UK either in a one-volume edition or in an omnibus with Hyperion. The book is available from Bantam Spectra in the USA.