Whether you’re a fan or not, you have to admit that Ridley Scott consistently stays busy, especially for a guy in his 70s. While he’s wrapping up work on Prometheus, Scott has been sorting through options for his next film and he may have found what he wants with The Counselor, a script written by celebrated novelist Cormac McCarthy. The story follows a respected lawyer who dabbles in the drug business only to get sucked in and then struggles to find a way out. The Counselor represents McCarthy’s first spec screenplay, which was quickly optioned by the producers of The Road, Nick Wechsler, Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, back in December. If he does direct, Ridley’s production banner, Scott Free Entertainment, would join the project as well.

Though The Counselor is described as “reminiscent of the rough and tumble world depicted in No Country For Old Men,” the story differs somewhat from McCarthy’s typically masculine-oriented material by placing two female characters in leading roles. We also know that the script is contemporary and set in the Southwest, again recalling images of the Coen Brothers film. While there have been several film adaptations of McCarthy’s work over the years, this will be the first time we will experience his prose directly, which sounds like a good deal to me. If Scott comes to this film with his creative juices still flowing from Prometheus, then I’m definitely in. What are your thoughts on Ridley Scott tackling a Cormac McCarthy script?