Denis Villeneuve to direct Rendezvous With Rama

Denis Villeneuve is to direct sci-fi movie 'Rendezvous With Rama'.

The 'Dune' director looks set to stick with the genre for the time being after he signed up to helm the big screen adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's novel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary will produce alongside Alcon Entertainment co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.

Johnson and Kosove said: "This is one of the most intelligent works of fiction in the genre; it poses as many questions as it does answers, and is a work for our time.

"It’s perfectly fitted to our friend and collaborator Denis’ brilliant sensibilities and specifically to his love and passion for science fiction.

"We are also pleased to work with Morgan and Lori, who have a long-standing passion for this IP."

Freeman previously held the rights to the novel, which was originally published in 1973.

Villeneuve worked with Alcon on 2013 film 'Prisoners', when he directed Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman, and 2017 sci-fi thriller 'Blade Runner 2049', which starred Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto, and Harrison Ford.

This comes after Villeneuve recently directed sci-fi film 'Dune', which was released in October, and the filmmaker admitted had to overcome his fear of failure to make the movie.

He previously said: "I was afraid of not being able to be good enough.

"That I will not be able to please that teenager that was dreaming 35 years ago about this movie."

'Dune' stars Timothee Chalamet in the lead role of Paul Atreides, and Villeneuve explained how his faith in the 'Little Women' actor was validated early on during filming.

He said: "To go through that process of having Timothee diving into that zone of pain and starting to transform himself in front of the camera, it was so impressive for me, and I knew.

"I was dreaming to work with Timothee on this, but when I saw this transformation, I was like, 'Whoa, we've got a movie.' "