HEINLEIN’S ‘CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY’ IN DEVELOPMENT AT LEX+OTIS STUDIOS

Heralded animation creatives Lex+Otis Studios have begun development to bring sci-fi legend Robert A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy to the big screen under the direction of Jay Oliva from a script written by Luke Lieberman. Academy Award winner Ryan Silbert is set to produce alongside Lieberman and Oliva, with Vince Gerardis and Matt Kennedy serving as executive producers for Startling, Inc.

 Citizen of the Galaxy, originally published in 1957, is an interstellar action-adventure and coming-of-age epic that begins on the bustling trade hub of the planet Jubbul. The tale centers around Thorby, an orphaned boy sold at auction under the whip of intergalactic slavery, until a fateful encounter with the enigmatic Baslim the Beggar changes the course of his life forever, setting him on a journey that will shape not only his destiny but the fate of the galaxy. Citizen of the Galaxy is one of the few Heinlein stories to not have been previously produced for film, TV or videogames.

 Heinlein, widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of science fiction storytelling, has had a myriad of his works translated from page to screen over the past 75 years, most notably director Paul Verhoeven’s cult classic film version of Starship Troopers (1997), the Ethan Hawke/Sarah Snook starrer Predestination (2014), and The Puppet Masters (1994) featuring Donald Sutherland. Previous animated creations of four-time Hugo Award winner Heinlein’s works include the mini-series Red Planet (1994), starring the voices of Mark Hamill and Roddy McDowall, and both a CG animation and an anime take on Starship Troopers, one of which was directed by Jay Oliva. Film, TV, animation, and video game productions of Heinlein’s creations date back to the early 1950s.

 Citizen of the Galaxy’s script has been written by Lieberman, while Oliva and his Lex+Otis team are deep into the visual development of the film – putting it squarely in a potential release window of early 2027.