Matt Reeves’ studio 6th & Idaho has acquired the rights to adapt Clifford D. Simak’s Hugo-winning novel Way Station as a film for Netflix, according to Deadline.
Reeves is best known for directing Cloverfield and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and is set to direct the next Batman film. His studio has a first-look film deal with Netflix, which is also working on an adaptation of George Orwell’s film Animal Farm, to be directed by Andy Serkis. There’s no indication as to when the adaptation of Way Station will hit Netflix—if it makes its way through the development pipeline—or who will direct it.
Simak first published Way Station as a serialized story in Galaxy Magazine in 1963 under the title Here Gather The Stars, and it earned the Hugo Award for Best Novel the following year. Most recently, Gary K. Wolf selected the title for his latest retrospective anthology, American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels 1960-1966.
The story follows a Civil War veteran named Enoch Wallace, who is selected by aliens to run a teleportation way station in the back woods of Wisconsin. There, alien tourists are transported to various interstellar destinations, and Wallace is tasked with making sure that their original bodies are safe on the station.
A century later, he attracts the attention of the government because he doesn’t seem to be getting older. But the gift of immortality provides him with a unique perspective on humanity—and he begins to recognize that the end is coming, and that there’s only one way to stave off disaster.
