Jessica Chastain is in early talks for the female lead opposite Matt Damon the Fox sci-fi pic “The Martian.”

Ridley Scott is directing.

Simon Kinberg, who has been with this project from the begining and brought the book to Scott, will producer alongside his exec Aditya Sood through Kinberg’s Genre Films banner. Fox exec Steve Asbell will oversee the project for the studio.

Story is based on the e-book by Andy Weir about an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars and must figure out how to stay alive long enough to get back home.

Since Scott’s commitment, the project has quickly come together and should get a greenlight once all the deals are locked in.

Chastain has been particular about what roles she commits to, leaning more towards prestige fare like “Lawless,” “Tree of Life,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “A Most Violent Year,” which bows later this year.

More recently, she has been moving towards larger-scale projects such as Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” which bows in November.

She is repped by CAA and Mosaic.