EXCLUSIVE: Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce are in final talks to join the cast of the 20th Century adaptation of The Dog Stars with Jacob Elordi starring and Ridley Scott directing. Mark L. Smith adapted the Peter Heller novel. Scott and Michael Pruss will produce for Scott Free alongside Smith and Cliff Roberts. Production is scheduled to begin at the end of April on location in Italy.

This follows Scott’s massive global hit Gladiator II, one of the biggest hits of the legendary Scott’s career – with global earnings just short of $500 million . Scott’s films have grossed over $5 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest grossing directors in history.

Acclaimed writer Mark L. Smith adapted the Peter Heller novel of the same name. Smith is the creator and writer of Netflix’s new hit series American Primeval starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin and is coming off the global success of Twisters starring Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones for Universal.

The Dog Stars is set in a near future where society has changed profoundly. Elordi plays Hig, a civilian pilot living on an abandoned Colorado airbase with his dog. Through an unlikely circumstance he meets a tough ex-marine called BANGLEY, to be played by Josh Brolin, and they are forced to work together to navigate this dangerous and uncompromising new world. One day, when a random transmission beams through the radio of Hig’s beloved Cessna plane, the voice ignites a hope deep inside the pilot that a new life may exist outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail. Qualley will play Cima, a young doctor and daughter of a world-weary rancher, to be played by Guy Pearce, who Hig meets along his fraught and life-changing journey.