After bidding farewell to Star Trek: Picard last year with a critically acclaimed final season, showrunner Terry Matalas has found his next big sci-fi project. Per The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios has tapped him to pen an update to the 1985 cult classic Enemy Mine, which starred Dennis Quaid and the late great Louis Gossett Jr. Based on Barry B. Longyear‘s 1979 novella featured in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, the original film hailed from Oscar-nominated Das Boot and The NeverEnding Story director Wolfgang Petersen in his English-language debut. Coincidentally, this will mark Matalas‘s feature writing debut.

Enemy Mine unfolds in the far future where humanity is in the middle of an interstellar war with the reptilian Drac species. When human pilot Willis Davidge (Quaid) and alien fighter Jeriba Shigan (Gossett Jr.) crash-land on a desolate, treacherous planet, however, they’re forced to put their prejudices aside to survive. Though their differences threaten to undo them, they slowly forge an unlikely friendship that carries them through the challenges the planet and its inhabitants pose to them. Eventually, Davidge is asked to care for the Drac’s child when he is no longer able to carry on.

Petersen‘s original film overcame a troubled production cycle and initial bombing at the box office to become a cult sci-fi favorite over time, currently holding a 68% score from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Among other things, it was praised for its themes of tolerance and mutual respect told through its main characters who come to know and honor each other’s ancestry. The Longyear-penned source material was similarly lauded upon its release, winning the Nebula Award, which honors the best science fiction works released in the U.S., in the novella category and receiving two sequels.

Matalas Is a Proven Voice in Science Fiction

There’s currently no director attached to 20th Century‘s new Enemy Mine adaptation, but the addition of Matalas is a promising start. There are few hotter up-and-coming names than him after he grabbed the attention of the sci-fi world last year with his work on Star Trek: Picard Season 3, which became by far the highest-rated installment of the series with a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes and raked in an eye-popping seven Saturn Award nominations with four wins including one for Best Television Series. Before becoming a WGA-nominated showrunner on the Patrick Stewart-led show, however, he had already proven a capable and steady hand as the creator and showrunner of 2015’s 12 Monkeys series on Syfy. Now, his schedule is quickly becoming crowded, with Marvel also pulling him in for a Vision solo series starring a returning Paul Bettany.

Enemy Mine is still very early in development. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Matalas‘s update of the cult classic film. The original is currently available for rent or purchase on digital platforms.

via Collider