Ironically,almost sank Wolfgang Petersen’s career. That hardly seemed likely at time, since the director has multiple hits on his resume, fromandto. But Petersen has hasn’t made a film since his 2006 remake ofsank at the box office, so it’s encouraging to hear that he’s found a project and recently hired a promising screenwriter to help him whip it into shape. Variety says that playwright and emerging scripter Chris Boal has been hired to rewrite the current draft offor Petersen to produce and direct. Set in a distant future, the story – based on John Scalzi’s science-fiction novel – follows a 75-year-old man who volunteers for a military process that trades his beaten-up and decrepit body for a genetically-enhanced body that allows him to join the current military fight in outer space. When he’s injured in battle, he meets a young woman who he believes to be a reincarnation of his wife … so he abandons his post and fights to be with her.has been set up at Paramount, and the studio must have its eye on a potential franchise, as Scalzi has penned three subsequent books in the series:and. If Petersen can launch the series with, Paramount could be sitting on a massive sci-fi franchise with big-ticket dreams.Boal, meanwhile, has screenwriting in his blood. His brother, Mark Boal, won the Oscar for writing Kathryn Bigelow’sback in 2008. The pair will reunite forlater this year.