Ted Chiang’s acclaimed work “Story of Your Life” is being adapted for film! The story, which is collected in Stories of Your Life and Others, won the 1999 Sturgeon Award and the 2000 Nebula Award for short fiction. It has a premise that should be perfect for the screen: when an alien race, the Heptapods, lands on earth, a linguist, Dr. Louise Banks, is tasked with learning their language. The catch is that the Heptapods have one language for speaking and another for writing—and studying the written language forces Dr. Banks to deal with questions of free will, determinism, and her memories of her daughter.

The film will be directed by Nic Mathieu, who is known for his sci-fi inspired work in commercials, and produced by Shawn Levy, a writer, director, and actor best known for Night at the Museum and Real Steel. (He also made his acting debut in MST3K episode Zombie Nightmare.)

“Story of Your Life” was adapted by writer Eric Heisserer, and Bleeding Cool happily points out Heisserer’s dedication to the project here. You can read an interview with Chiang here at Boing Boing.