Robert Kirkman’s New Movie ‘AIR’ With Norman Reedus Is Pretty Much Just Hugh Howey’s Novel ‘Shift’

Robert Kirkman is teaming up with Norman Reedus again, but this time they are looking past the success of “The Walking Dead” and setting their sights on the silver screen with the forthcoming film “AIR.” The film, which is directed by Christian Cantamessa and is slated for release in the Spring of 2015, tells the story of two workers, one played by Reedus and the other played by Djimon Hounsou, the pair are tasked with maintaining an underground missile silo. These silos or bunkers have been constructed in an attempt to preserve the human race after a tragic event, which rendered the air outside of the bunker toxic. In addition to housing the pair, who Reedus describes as a scientist and a janitor, the silo is filled with sleeping tanks that are preserving individuals; these sleeping people are seen as the best chance for rebuilding civilization within the silo.

While science fiction and “Walking Dead” fans alike are rejoicing in the chance to see Robert Kirkman’s apocalyptic visions come to life in a feature film, this story has unfortunately been told before. I am an avid fan of the sci-fi genre, in TV, books and movies, so when I saw an article by Entertainment Weekly detailing the new film I immediately clicked, but half way through the first paragraph, I realized something, I already knew this, but where from? Hugh Howey. Howey, the self-published American author, has already told the story of silos on post-apocalyptic earth in his series of science fiction novellas entitled “Wool: The Silo Saga.” In the interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reedus explained that in “AIR” his character, Bauer, along with Hounsou’s character Cartwright, have just been awoken from their sleeping tanks for their two hour work shift, which occurs at a mind numbingly slow rate of every 6 months.

Reedus went on to described his character Bauer as a man who is haunted by his past, “one of them discovers that the other has a secret, he’s holding onto the secret and that secret is that he’s trying to keep a certain person alive. And through the character I play, his past is such a dark one, and the guilt of what he’s done weighs so heavy on him that he sort of substitutes his real family for this other person in his mind, and he sort of looks at him as a brother in this way that’s a little too close for comfort. And what happens is he ends up forcing the action to take place against the other person’s will.”

Now that you have a clear picture of the story set to unfold in “AIR” let me provide you with a synopsis of “Shift,” a later novella included in Howey’s omnibus edition of his novel “Wool.” “Shift” tells the story of how silos came to be, and why humans were forced inside. “Shift” serves as a prequel to “Wool,” where fans discovered that the very same people who built the silos planned the apocalypse, which left the air toxic.

In this installment, the timeline is the middle of the 21^st century and the protagonists name is Donald, a young congressman with a personal connection to Thurman, the war veteran turned U.S. Senator who orchestrated the catastrophic event. Donald is made a part of Thurman’s plot to control the population; Thurman has systematically harbored thousands of people into fifty silos across the United States. Donald unknowingly finds himself deeply engrained in Thurman’s plan, and by the time he realizes what is occurring it is too late. Donald is tragically separated from his wife, who is sequestered in another silo, and he is assigned as one of the heads of Silo 1, the main silo that controls all 50 of the rest.

Like his pervious life, Donald is soon stripped of his free will but Thurman and his crew dosing the entire silo population with medication that gradually allows them to forget their past lives, and accept the new order of the silo complacently. Oh yeah, and if things couldn't get any worse for poor Donald, the residents of Silo 1 are cryogenically frozen for years in between their “shifts.” They work for six months, go to sleep, and wake back up again in a different century. And while this new plan may sound full proof, after his first “shift” Donald wakes up and his past starts to creep back into his memory. Despite Thurman’s medicine Donald soon begins to remember and the doctors of Silo catch wind of his “issues” that are creeping back into his mind and decide to freeze him early.

Sound familiar? Even more concerning, the film rights for “Wool” where sold to 20^th Century Fox, with director Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian have expressed interest in the film adaptation.