Ridley Scott, never one to idle, is back behind the camera at 87 with The Dog Stars, a sweeping adaptation of Peter Heller’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel. Production is now underway in the UK, with a reported budget north of $100 million — a far cry from the modest, meditative scale the film was originally rumoured to embody.
Leading the cast is Saltburn’s breakout star Jacob Elordi, joined by Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce, and Margaret Qualley. Elordi plays Hig, a grieving pilot surviving in the wake of a global pandemic, holed up in an airplane hangar with only his dog and a terse gunman for company. When a mysterious transmission crackles through his radio, Hig sets off across a ruined landscape in search of what — or who — remains.
Behind the lens is Dariusz Wolski, Scott’s frequent visual collaborator on films like Prometheus and The Martian. Notably absent this time is long-time cinematographer John Mathieson, who recently criticised Scott’s working pace and creative instincts — comments that have only added fuel to the film’s already buzzy production.
Despite recent mega-budget ventures like Napoleon and Gladiator II, The Dog Stars signals a thematic shift back to isolation, survival, and human fragility — though clearly, not at the expense of spectacle. And with several more projects reportedly in the pipeline, Scott’s retirement appears, once again, nowhere in sight.
