Ridley Scott, who just last week was announced as the director of an Alien prequel, is now said to be adapting everyone’s favorite high school English book Brave New World for Universal.  Hollywood Reporter reports that Scott will be “producing with an eye to direct”, while Leonardo DiCaprio will “produce with an eye to star.”  Forest Whitaker, meanwhile, is said to be reading the book “with an eye to the floor.”

Much of the timing going forward will depend on the script. Scott is not committed to direct any go projects beyond “Robin Hood,” his period actioner which is shooting in England. DiCaprio is shooting the Christopher Nolan adventure tale “Inception” but does not have a movie lined up after that.

“Brave” has had several go-rounds on television, including a Leonard Nimoy-Peter Gallagher pic on NBC in 1998. But Huxley’s idea-rich novel hasn’t had a shot on the big screen.

Huxley sets his book in a seemingly perfect 26th century world that has achieved harmony by tightly controlling birth, which takes place mainly in laboratories, and outlawing family. The world is populated by a series of five castes, each with its own defined roles.

Characters who figure in to the story are Bernard, a lower-caste member, and Lenina, the woman with whom he is infatuated. DiCaprio is would likely play Bernard, who is persecuted when the leaders of the society find his behavior antisocial.

I’m excited to see what Ridley Scott could do with Brave New World, but not if it means we never get to see his big-screen adaptation of Monopoly.  Who will play the thimble?  And what of the flying shoe?  I WON $10 IN A BEAUTY CONTEST AND I’M DYING TO SPEND IT ON A MONOPOLY MOVIE, GODDAMMIT!

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