EXCLUSIVE: The current political climate has led to a growing popularity of dystopian stories such as Black Mirror and Blade Runner 2049 so it seems as good a time as ever to reboot Logan’s Run. I hear Warner Bros has just closed a deal to kickstart the project, written by Hunger Games writer Peter Craig and directed by X-Men: Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg.

The project has been in the works for a few years but I understand a deal closed this week. The studio will be hoping that Logan’s Run can replicate the success of Denis Villeneuve’s Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford-fronted sci-fi drama and receive a similar buzz to Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, which is released later this year. Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and The Matrix producer Joel Silver is producing.

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Logan’s Run, which was based on William F. Noland and George Clayton Johnson’s novel, was originally released in 1976, written by David Zelag Goodman and directed by Michael Anderson. It was produced by MGM and starred Michael York and Farrah Fawcett. It was also briefly adapted as a television series in 1977 with Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies.

The story is set in a utopian society in the future where the population and consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by killing people as they reach 30. It follows Logan 5, a ‘Sandman’ killer, as he runs off his Jessica, while being chased by another Sandman, after he faces death himself.

It’s thought that the remake could feature a female lead instead of a male lead. This would suit Craig, who wrote The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2. He also previously wrote Ben Affleck feature The Town, recently finished adapting M A Bennet’s young adult novel S.T.A.G.S for Fox 2000 and Chernin Entertainment and is behind Top Gun 2: Maverick, which is set for 2019. Kinberg, whose Jessica Chastain-fronted X-Men movie comes out in November, is best known for producing Deadpool and Logan. He is currently writing a forthcoming Star Wars movie, having been responsible for creating animated series Star Wars Rebels. Craig is represented by CAA, Grandview and Hanson Jacobson Teller, while Kinberg is also repped by CAA.