// SPACE.COM — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
'Arrival' at 10: Denis Villeneuve's alien visitation classic that reminded us it's good to talk
How the 'Dune' director turned a little-known short story into one of the best sci-fi movies of the 21st century
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
In many of the biggest science fiction franchises, conversing with alien races is an absolute doddle. In "Star Trek", universal translators come as standard, while C-3PO has spent the last 49 years reminding everyone in "Star Wars" that he's fluent in over six million forms of communication.
But in "Arrival" — which was released 10 years ago in November 2016 — making first contact proves to be rather more challenging than maintaining your Duolingo streak. In fact, working out how to establish a dialogue with extraterrestrial visitors becomes the whole point of this powerful and heartbreaking story, as the fate of planet Earth hinges on the interpretation of a single noun.
The film's journey to the big screen began when a screenwriter best known for his work on horror franchises such as "Final Destination", "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Thing" read a short story in an online magazine. Eric Heisserer was so impressed by Ted Chiang's "Understand" that he bought himself a collection of the author's short stories. One in particular, the Nebula Award-winning "Story of Your Life", piqued his interest.
"It had a very profound emotional effect on me," he reminisced to Deadline. "I was in tears, and I was both heartbroken and uplifted. My head was just full of big ideas. I had to walk around the block a couple of times afterward and just hug my friends. The next day, I was like, 'Oh god, I want to give this to other people.'"
So when 21 Laps (the production company that later went on to make "Stranger Things") invited Heisserer to discuss possible future projects, the writer mentioned "Story of Your Life". The producers were also smitten.
"I was so excited, but I had that dread that a lot of producers get, which is, 'Are the rights available?'" 21 Laps' Dan Levine told the Hollywood Gold podcast. "You read something that blows you away, and then you find there aren't the rights, and there's no chance, you have to move on. So we were trying to track down this Ted Chiang, and he had no agent. He had a day job. He was impossible to find, so we started the hunt for Ted Chiang."
An up-and-coming Canadian director named Denis Villeneuve had also found his way on to 21 Laps' radar after his 2010 French-language drama "Incendies" earned rave reviews and an Academy Award nomination. He told the producers that he'd always wanted to direct a science fiction film — a hint of things to come? — and they showed him "Story of Your Life".
He was also drawn to the story, while the now-located Chiang was suitably impressed by the director's work on "Incendies" to make a deal for the rights. And with Amy Adams also interested in playing the lead role of linguist Dr Louise Banks, the film that would eventually become "Arrival" was ready to proceed — or, at least, it would be once Villeneuve had completed his first three Hollywood movies, "Prisoners" (2013), "Enemy" (2013) and "Sicario" (2015).