Pike’s novel sends U.S. astronauts to Mars to discover the fate of an earlier Russian expedition, whose crew members haven’t been heard from. Wagner and her fellow U.S. crew members learn there’s a seemingly supernatural reason for their disappearance — and that some of the Russians may still be alive on the Red Planet, living out a zombie-like fate that’s not only dangerous for anyone who comes looking, but worse than death itself. (Credit: Tor Books/Amazon) Mike Flanagan will also co-produce the new movie for Universal Pictures, in partnership with Intrepid Pictures’ Trevor Macy, according to the report. There’s no early word on just how closely the planned film will follow the events of Pike’s novel, which received praise from readers and horror-friendly critics upon its early-1990s release. Events in the novel are set in a “future” of the early 2000s, with astronauts investigating a Martian mission that kicked off in 1996 — so it’s not tough to imagine that a present-day film adaptation would at least tweak the timeline.