Andrew Niccol was asked to direct the movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host; I wrote it up for Tor.com, though there’s not much comfort in it except that he probably could use the money. (S1m0ne didn’t do so hot.)

Readers of this blog know how much I love GATTACA. (Hint: A LOT.)

S1m0ne was botched in the execution (no little credit for which goes to Al Pacino, who did his bug-eyed creepster routine instead of acting), but he managed to look slightly ahead of where we are now, and every time I see people clawing their faces over the Avatar trailer, S1m0ne is the first thing I think of. (“I guess what I like most about my movies is that they’re not about special effects.”) She also dropped some hilarious one-liners in that movie. Not saying it was great; just saying it had the right idea, and it gets a lot better when you ignore Al Pacino and the last twenty minutes.

He’s certainly too good for the material he’s getting this go-round, but I wish him well, in a general way, and hope this is the beginning of better things for him. Much, much better things.