Chris Columbus Discovers Film Appeal of Charles Yu’s How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

January 11, 2012

By Claudia Herr

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Charles Yu/Photo © Michelle Jue

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It would take someone with real vision to read Charles Yu’s critically acclaimed debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and see it as a movie. So perhaps it’s not surprising to hear that Chris Columbus has taken it on for his production company1492 Pictures. Columbus, who has produced three Harry Potter films (and directed two), and is no stranger to bringing visionary books to the screen, will produce along with the company’s Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan. First-timer Brendan Bellomo is lined up to direct. Although this will be Bellomo’s first feature, he’s made a name for himself with a couple of acclaimed science-fiction shorts, and has a background in visual effects, so he seems like a promising choice to direct this quirky, sharp, hilarious and heartwarming lit-sci-fi genre bender.

The story of a lonely time-travel-machine repair man Charles Yu – the protagonist of the novel shares the author’s name – How to Live Safely chronicles his travels back and forth through quantum time and space as he does his job, which most of the time is simply explaining to people that they can’t use their “personal-use chronogrammatical vehicles” to do what most customers rent them for, that is to go back in time to their worst moments in an attempt to change the present. There’s an added pathos to Yu’s time travels – he is also trying to find his father who is lost somewhere in time and space. His only company is a dog, Ed, who technically does not exist, (though he is a “perfectly valid ontological entity”) and a depressed robot named TAMMY. There’s no word yet on casting, but this is just one of the challenges we can’t wait to see the production tackle.

The mash-up of sensibilities and genres is nothing new for Columbus, who’s had a hand in some of the most beloved comedies of the past thirty years, (he wrote “Gremlins” and “The Goonies,” and directed “Adventures in Babysitting” and “Home Alone,” to name just a few) many of which have strong family themes, and plenty of which have mixed humor with adventure. And while this will be his first sci-fi movie, it’s certainly not his first foray into fantasy.

One of the great strengths of the book is that, though it takes place in a “science fictional universe” populated by fembots and cleverly imaginative futuristic technology, it is really about loneliness, the search for love, our experience of time, and how we reconcile past and present. It will be interesting to see just how “sci-fi” the movie will go, and how it will remain true to the book’s essentially human themes.

Tags: 1492 Pictures, Brendan Bellomo, Charles Yu, Chris Columbus, Gremlins, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Mark Radcliffe, Michael Barnathan, Science Fiction, The Goonies