His future world existed in 2540, but in the year 2009 we already seem to have moved a fair way down that path. Drugs - specifically the psychedelic sleep conditioning substance Soma - were seen as an acceptable way of escaping the daily grind, and childbirth had become an inconvenience to be avoided.

The writer imagined a society in which family was outlawed, recreational sex with multiple partners was encouraged and consumerism was worshipped as the new religion. And while the future posited by the writer in 1931 is perhaps not nearly so controversial today as it was almost 80 years ago, when the book was banned in some countries, Huxley's ideas have only gained in relevance. Aldous Huxley's novel, with its themes of anti-individualism and the compartmentalisation of humanity, has been plundered countless times for movies such as Equilibrium, Dark City and Gattaca, but it has never been filmed for the big screen. Brave New World on the other hand, which according to the Risky Business blog, has finally been given the green light at Universal, might just deliver the basis for Scott to belatedly add a third gun to those classic twin cannons of late 70s/early 80s sci-fi, Alien and Blade Runner.

Brave new world movie remake