The beautiful thing about science fiction is the mystery surrounding the premise. Since the writer gets to create the world, but can’t simply create it from scratch, there’s usually an interesting adherence to reality that acts as the anchor for whatever strange creatures and new physics rules exist in that brave new world. The mystery surrounding Last Man, the property just picked up by Fox through New Regency, is whether writer/director David Ayer will be playing the highly talented version of himself or the version of himself that can’t direct his way out of John Hurt’s stomach.

And, yes, that was a really poorly worded reference to Alien.

Variety describes the film as focusing on a grizzly captain defending a far-away planet with his band of trusty, yet totally green, American soldiers. At first glance it sounds like a fantastic high concept premise that could easily be loose plot points and thin character development used as down time between each bad ass battle scene – but Ayer is at the helm.

So riddle me this: how can the guy who wrote Training Day also be the same guy who wrote S.W.A.T.? And do I need to remind fans that he’s the director behind Street Kings, a movie that was easily one of the worst of last year? The guy is a mystery himself – someone who can pull out a genius script, a decent one, or a completely terrible one. However, so far the only thing he’s ever proved to do behind the director’s chair has been consistent – and that doesn’t bode well for this film.

However it could be worse. We could be hearing news that Keanu Reeves will be working with Ayer again, signing on as the grizzly captain.

What do you think? Should I stop making John Hurt references?