Netflix Lands JG Ballard Sci-Fi Novel ‘Hello America’ With Ridley Scott Producing

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is making its presence felt here in Cannes, but it is simultaneously making deals in Hollywood to expand its feature slate. Netflix has acquired film rights to Hello America, the 1981 sci-fi novel by JG Ballard. Scott Free’s Ridley Scott, Kevin Walsh and Michael Pruss will produce. The novel takes place a century after America’s financial collapse and abandonment by its people, when a group of pioneers return to the ruins of the “New World” on a voyage of rediscovery. The journey through a ravaged wasteland brings hazards at every turn to the crew, culminating in a showdown with a charismatic leader who plans to unleash his nuclear arsenal against anyone who threatens his power perch. This becomes Scott Free’s second deal at Netflix, after it closed a deal for War Party, the Andrew Dominik-directed film that will star Tom Hardy. The Ballard Estate was repped in the deal by Jenne Casarotto of Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates. Scott Free is in production on the Jake Scott-directed The Burning Woman, and the Drake Doremus-directed Zoe, as Ridley Scott preps to direct All The Money in The World.