Following his success with 20th Century Fox's The Martian, which was nominated for Best Picture and made over $630 million worldwide, director Ridley Scott is reuniting with the studio and The Martian writer Drew Goddard for a new project. 20th Century Fox has closed a deal for the rights to author S. Craig Zahler's Western novel Wraiths of the Broken Land, which Ridley Scott will direct from an adapted script by Drew Goddard. Both the writer and director are also set to produce, alongside Michael Schaefer, Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood.

Wraiths Of The Broken Land is set at the turn of the 20th Century in a town near the Mexican border. The story follows a group of men who team up to find their sisters, who have all been taken captive. As these men cross treacherous badlands to find their beloved siblings, their lives, ethics and sanity are put on the line. The novel was published by Raw Dog Screaming Press in 2013.

Author S. Craig Zahler made his feature directing debut last year with another Western tale, Bone Tomahawk, which starred Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, David Arquette and Richard Jenkins. He previously wrote the film Asylum Blackout, and we reported just last week that the author/filmmaker has come aboard to write the Puppet Master reboot entitled Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. As an author, he has written A Congregation of Jackals, Corpus Chrome Inc. and Mean Business on North Ganson Street, the latter of which is in development at Warner Bros., with Leonardo DiCaprio set to star.

Ridley Scott is currently filming Alien: Covenant in Australia for 20th Century Fox, which has been slated for release on August 4, 2017. He is also producing the highly-anticipated Blade Runner sequel, which has Harrison Ford reprising his role as Rick Deckard, alongside Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas and Dave Bautista. The filmmaker is also attached to direct The Cartel, based on Don Winslow's novel, which has Leonardo DiCaprio set to star.

As per Deadline, It isn't known when production may begin on Wraiths of the Broken Land quite yet, or if this will be Ridley Scott's next movie after he completes work on Alien: Covenant. That will likely depend on how long it takes Drew Goddard to write the script, so we'll have to wait and see. Drew Goddard also created Netflix's Daredevil TV series, and he will serve as an executive producer on The Defenders for the streaming service.