If we were to view Back to the Future II as a prophesy of sorts, then we’re just a few years away from having flying cars, telephones built into wearable glasses, and wall-mounted fax machines in multiple rooms of our homes. Regardless of the unlikelihood that 2015 delivers on all (or any) of the expectations set by Back to the Future’s sequel, or whether anyone even wants a set of spacey looking telephone-glasses or a fax machine in their living room, the flying car remains a preferred vehicle for futuristic settings in fiction, as evidenced by Matthew Reilly’s novel Hover Car Racer, which Disney plans to adapt to a movie.
Combining sports, action and sci-fi, Hover Car Racer tells the story of a kid named Jason Chaser living in the near future where cars hover above the ground. The novel sounds like something of an underdog story as Chaser is described as younger and smaller than the other students at the racing school in which he attends, though he apparently proves to be especially good at driving.
From what The Hollywood Reporter posted, Disney has been trying to get the book adapted to a movie sine 2004 when the novel was first published. Writers David DiGilio, John Sayles and Blaise Hemingway have all apparently made attempts to adapt the book into a script. Now Disney has Dan Harris on board to work on the script. Harris’ previous screenwriting projects include Superman Returns and X2. His most recent writing credit for a film was for the 2007 Jean-Claude Vane Damme thriller Until Death. IMDB has nothing listed for him since then. It’ll be interesting to see if this project gets off the ground beyond a script.
