After Mel Gibson's venture into religion—albeit only as director of The Passion of the Christ—one is a little nervous to learn that Brad Pitt,
much impressed by Mary Doria Russell's novel The Sparrow—that's as in "his eye is on the"—has arranged for the book to be optioned for him by Warner Brothers. The novel, a solid sci-fi story with an interleaving plotline, is going to be a lot harder than Sphere to bring to the screen and Jodie Foster has, to date, been a more astute judge of material for herself than Pitt has for himself.
The central character makes an interstellar journey based on faith to a destiny that is cruel and bitter, in part because
the intelligences he meets are not human and so, almost by definition, inhumane. The question raised in the story of Job is raised: Why has this fate befallen a good man? Should Pitt succeed, the film could be extraordinary in a way no science fiction film to date has been. For further information go to the online zine, Dark Horizons.