Bradley Cooper has been devoted to developing the epic, heart-wrenching, and thought-provoking science fiction novels Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion, and possibly the third and fourth books Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, written in the 1980s and ’90s by author Dan Simmons for more than a decade. Following the success of the film adaptation of the also classic science fiction novel Dune, Cooper has brought his passion project all the way from television series at Syfy to, just recently, a major motion picture with Warner Bros.
There are so many reasons why this Hyperion film adaptation will be an incredible feat, a spectacle for the ages, and something science fiction and cinema lovers all over the globe, and indeed scientists and engineers, and sociologists and futurists, can get very excited about. The Dan Simmons novels are some of the most pivotal science fiction works ever written. To see them developed by the accomplished Cooper, who is quickly becoming an auteur, is a monumental development.
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Here is everything we know about its production so far, and all the themes we want to see leap from the page to the screen!
Why is Hyperion an Essential Read?
Doubleday
Without giving too much away, the 1989 novel Hyperion is about six pilgrims on an epic journey to face a horrifying enemy, on a foreign planet, with total strangers and no frame of reference for what is about to happen. Hyperion, the planet to which they are traveling, is an enigma, populated by little-known indigenous populations, transplanted poets, outcasts, and terrifying geological or engineered features. It orbits in the outreaches of the galaxy, which is now a multi-planetary system controlled by the interstellar Hegemony government, woven together and intimately connected by farcaster portals developed and run by a, not at all understood, highly evolved artificial intelligence unit called the Core.
On Hyperion exists a fierce, metallic, towering monster called the Shrike, and it guards Time Tombs, or ancient vaults and palaces of stones and jewels that are somehow running backward in time along with the shrike. Complicating it all is the huge swarm of Ousters – long separated, barbaric humans who ran to the furthest reaches of space to dabble in strange and inhuman practices now surrounding the pivotal Hyperion to take it for themselves.
The six pilgrims have been assembled by the Hegemony government, according to the algorithmic recommendations of the explicitly trusted Core, to travel to the Time Tombs and meet a destiny that will impact the whole future of the entire human race. Because of the specific and precarious ways in which each of the Pilgrims’ lives have already been intertwined with the Shrike and Hyperion, the journey is both emotionally fraught and fatally dangerous, and the results are the explosive confrontations of humanity, technology, and the ultimate intelligence of the Creator itself.
Hyperion explores the nature of God, gods, religion, artificial intelligence, humanity as creators, humanity’s fate in the broader universe, the legitimacy of consciousness, and pretty much everything in between these topics. Simmons’ novels draw inspiration from the Hyperion Cantos, written by the impassioned, romantic, tragic eighteenth-century poet John Keats, who plays an active role in the Hyperion books, despite having died in Rome of consumption in the eighteenth century. The books are an essential read for anyone plagued or even mildly curious about the fate of humanity in our increasingly complicated and threatened world and are an exceptional, absolutely outstanding narrative achievement.
Making the Hyperion Books a Big-Screen Reality
Warner Bros. Pictures
Bradley Cooper has allegedly been committed to adapting this tale for the ages since the early 2010s. Perhaps the success of 2021’s Dune gave studios the motivation they needed to ensure Hyperion becomes a story fresh in the minds of all during this critical time in history. Graham King of The Rum Diary and Tomb Raider 2 will be producing alongside Cooper.
The project was initially set to be a television series, which might have been a better format for the expansive and extensive storytelling in the Hyperion novels. Still, it’s difficult to imagine this epic on the small screen rather than the big one. Much work will have to be done to craft this whole futuristic world into a digestible movie, particularly since the first book has seven different timelines, but if there’s a man for the job, it’s Cooper.
Hyperion is filled with interesting, original, and engaging characters that need to be cast with enigmatic actors. There is an extensive list of potential artists who could portray these characters, and it’s worth speculating which one Cooper might take on as he generally also lends his astounding acting talent to his directorial work. However, in the interest of not spoiling the fantastic novels, we won’t speculate too much here. It is still very early in the project’s development, and there is no shortage of thrilling announcements in store for us in the near future.
It might be beneficial for us to spend time enjoying the original novels, as reading them will expand our consciousnesses and make us wonder why we’ve had to wait so long for the big-screen adaptation in the first place!
