Key Takeaways
- Ridley Scott adapts Peter Heller's novel 'The Dog Stars' into a new film.
- Jacob Elordi plays the lead role as Hig, a survivor living with his dog Jasper.
- Hig searches for survivors in a post-apocalyptic world nine years after a super-flu pandemic.
Ridley Scott has adapted Peter Heller’s novel 'The Dog Stars' into a new film starring Jacob Elordi as the lead character, Hig.
Set nine years after a devastating super-flu pandemic wipes out most of humanity, the story follows Hig and his dog Jasper in search of survivors from their base at an airport near Denver, Colorado.
Elordi describes his approach to writing the novel: 'I didn’t want to plot or outline. I wanted to launch onto a narrative current and follow it into wild new territory.'
Hig’s character is described as living with Bangley, a gun enthusiast who has been waiting for the apocalypse his entire life.
The story begins with Hig searching for his wife, who was pregnant when she died, and his friends, all of whom have passed away.
Elordi explains that he wanted to be a fiction writer since childhood but had to work as a journalist to make a living. 'With every story I wrote, I knew the ending,' he says, adding, 'Now, I didn’t want to know.'
Inspired by his love for kayaking and poetry, Elordi sought to capture the lyrical quality of language in his writing.
In an interview, Elordi shares: ‘I went to the coffee shop in my neighborhood in Denver and I sat down and told myself, “Don’t think, don’t think, just listen.”’
This led him to write lines such as: 'My name is Hig, one name. Big Hig if you need another. If I ever woke up crying in the middle of a dream, and I’m not saying I did, it’s because the trout are gone, every one.'
I didn’t want to plot or outline.
Jacob Elordi, Actor
Now, I didn’t want to know.
Jacob Elordi, Actor
I went to the coffee shop in my neighborhood in Denver and I sat down and told myself, “Don’t think, don’t think, just listen.”
Jacob Elordi, Actor
