Last month, we reported that Ridley Scott was in talks to direct The Martian, which has Matt Damon attached to star. Drew Goddard was initially attached to direct, but he dropped out due to his involvement in Sony's The Sinister Six. During a recent podcast appearance, Simon Kinberg revealed that production is actually scheduled to begin this fall.

"There's a script that Drew Goddard wrote, who wrote Cloverfield and who wrote and directed The Cabin in the Woods, a great, great writer. There's a book I brought to him called The Martian, that is a very realistic science-fiction book, which he wrote an incredible script of, that he was going to direct. Then his Spider-Man movie got pulled up, so he left it, but Ridley Scott is going to direct it and we're going star it this fall."

It was believed that Ridley Scott would make Prometheus 2 next, since 20th Century Fox has already issued a March 4, 2016 release date. We reported last month that the director is scouting locations in Australia, and that he may be seeking a multi-picture agreement that would cover both Prometheus 2 and the Untitled Blade Runner Project, both of which would start production next year.

The Martian is adapted from Andy Weir's 2012 self-published novel of the same name, which centers on an astronaut who becomes stranded on a Martian colony by himself.

Ridley Scott is currently in post-production on his latest film Exodus: Gods and Kings, which hits theaters on December 12.