By nature, sci-fi adaptations are ambitious, but only a few novels in the genre have been dubbed “unfilmable.” For decades, failed projects like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune and Claire Noto’s The Tourist have collapsed underneath heady, complex narratives and lofty production ideas. Some IP, like William Gibson’s Neuromancer, has been passed from studio to studio. Science fiction, more than any other genre, has had countless movies stall out before completion. This limbo is what industry folks call “development hell.”
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The award-winning literary epic Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, is one of the latest sci-fi novels to be branded as “unfilmable,” after bouncing around Hollywood for 16 years. The most recent name attached, as of 2021, is Bradley Cooper as producer. Supposedly, the project is in active development at Warner Bros. with Tom Spezialy writing the screenplay. While it hasn’t made it to production, and updates have been scant since its 2021 announcement, industry insiders confirm the adaptation is moving forward with studios searching for a director and considering a multi-film series to adapt Simmons’ masterpiece.
Why Hyperion is an “Unfilmable” Masterpiece
Dan Simmons’ Hyperion was the 1989 Hugo Award winner and the first novel in the four-book series Hyperion Cantos. It’s a sprawling epic set in a distant future, where a war looms across the galaxy and seven pilgrims journey to the mysterious world of Hyperion and its ominous Time Tombs. The pilgrim’s stories are told in distinct voices, creating a genre-bending experience which includes military sci-fi, noir, and romance.
Inspired in part by The Canterbury Tales, the novel’s anthology structure lies within a larger narrative. While this is precisely what makes the book so brilliant, it’s also the reason Hollywood has balked at it. Successfully translating seven stories, multiple timelines, and the metaphysical mystery of the Shrike (a terrifying, time-defying creature feared across worlds) would require a massive allocation of resources and the vision of an auteur filmmaker who can see how all the moving pieces will come together on screen.
Hollywood’s Long History with Hyperion
The fight to bring Hyperion to the screen began in the 2000s. Famed director James Cameron reportedly eyed the project, ultimately shelving it in favor of Avatar, which offered a more straightforward story in which to explore his interest in filmmaking technology. Other high-profile attempts included a rumored Martin Scorsese-Leonardo DiCaprio collaboration in the early 2000s, which also failed to materialize.
By 2009, Warner Bros. was setting up its first Hyperion attempt, with director Scott Derrickson attached and a screenplay by Trevor Sands that attempted to combine the first two books into a single film. This ambitious idea ultimately fell through, becoming another in the line of unrealized adaptations. In 2011, A-list actor and aspiring director Bradley Cooper entered the picture, initially interested in writing and potentially helming his own adaptation; he and a collaborator even got as far as penning an early treatment and pitching it to rights holders.
Efforts continued into the 2010s with a pivot toward television: in 2015, Syfy announced a Hyperion event series with Cooper, Graham King, and Todd Phillips producing, a format that promised more room for the narrative’s complexity but was once again shelved.
The Latest Attempt to Adapt the Hyperion Cantos
The latest and most promising incarnation was the 2021 announcement that Warner Bros. would officially develop Hyperion as a feature film adaptation under Cooper’s growing production banner, alongside veteran producer Graham King. Also attached was Watchmen writer Tom Spezialy. Allegedly, the search for a director is ongoing, and there are no confirmed casting or release date announcements yet. While the project technically remains in active development as of 2025, many fans os Simmons’ epic are concerned that the four-year silence from the studio is a sign that development has lost its momentum, heading toward yet another failed adaptation.
Still, the success of the recent Dune franchise from director Denis Villeneuve is a promising sign for “unfilmable” sci-fi novels. After Jodorowsky’s Dune failed to get off the ground, and David Lynch’s Dune film disappointed audiences, Frank Herbert’s story was shelved for nearly forty years and deemed impossible to adapt. Villeneuve’s adaptations have proven that with the right leader, no adaptation is truly “unfilmable.”
Perhaps the search for the perfect director is precisely why we haven’t had any recent project updates. After all, to pull off Hyperion, the creatives behind it must take their time. They must carefully consider each step they take, each department head they hire, or actor they cast. They must think through all the ways to adapt the screenplay and how they will dissect and divide the story if they are considering a multi-film series. One wrong move, and the project will fall apart once again, further cementing its status as an “unfilmable” sci-fi masterpiece.
Do you think Hyperion would be better as one movie, multiple films, or a TV series? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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