EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox has closed a big deal for screen rights to the S. Craig Zahler novel Wraiths Of The Broken Land, so that it could reunite the dream team behind the Best Picture Oscar-nominated hit The Martian. Ridley Scott has made a deal to direct with Drew Goddard to write the script. The film will be produced by both of them along with Scott Free’s Michael Schaefer, Genre Films’ Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood.

The similarities to the comparatively upbeat The Martian end there. Wraiths Of The Broken Land is a Western, set near the Mexican border at the turn of the previous century. A group of men assemble and storm across the badlands to find their captive sisters, doing anything they deem necessary to achieve their goal. Lives, ethics and sanity are imperiled during the wild, brutal struggle that ensues and nobody is safe. The book was published by Raw Dog Screaming Press. Scott was eager to work again with Goddard. The Martian grossed just north of $650 million worldwide. Steve Asbell is overseeing for Fox.

Scott is directing Alien: Covenant for release in 2017. Goddard, creator and writer of popular Netflix series Daredevil, will exec produce the Netflix and Marvel team-up series The Defenders and he directed and executive produced the pilot of the new Mike Schur series The Good Place for NBC starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. His writing credits include World War Z, Cloverfield and The Cabin in the Woods, latter of which he also helmed. Zahler most recently wrote and directed the Kurt Russell/Patrick Wilson-starrer Bone Tomahawk and follows with Brawl in Cell Block 99 with Vince Vaughn. His other novels include A Congregation of Jackals, Corpus Chrome, Inc. and Mean Business on North Ganson Street, the latter of which Zahler adapted for Warner Bros. with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to produce and star. Scott is repped by WME, Goddard is repped by UTA and Hansen Jacobson, and Zahler is repped by UTA, Caliber Media and Ziffren Brittenham.