Director Ridley Scott and Fox2000 have tapped D.W Harper (“All You Need is Kill”) to write the screenplay for “Forever War”, Scott’s long-gestating film version of Joe Halderman’s science-fiction novel, says Deadline.

“Alien” director Scott has been trying to get the film off-the-ground for 25 years. Harper’s anointment to the writing room suggests it may inching forward – or, in the very least, intangibly flashing a pulse.

Richard Edlund, who worked the visual effects on “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, originally intended to make the film his directorial debut – many, many moons ago. After Edlund failed to make a film of Halderman’s yarn, Scott’s crowd stepped in. And, in 2008, Fox 2000.

The award winning book, says the trade, has “A soldier reluctantly battle an enemy in deep space, and while he spends a short time in battle, the time dilation of space channel causes him to return home to a planet that has aged to the point it is almost unrecognizable to the soldier.”

Ridley Scott seems quite content in beaching in science-fiction land for a while; in addition to this year’s “Prometheus”, he’s developing that film’s sequel, plus a follow-up to his 1982 classic “Blade Runner”, with “War” his fourth in the genre in recent times.