Sci-Fi Storm

Universal Cable Productions (UCP) and Syfy today announced they have signed Grant Morrison (Batman, The Invisibles) and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) to adapt Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World for Syfy with Amblin Television. Morrison and Taylor will also serve as executive producers, along with Amblin Television Co-Presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (The Americans, All The Way).

Considered one of the most influential genre classics of all time and named fifth among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20thCentury by Modern Library, the 1931 novel looks 632 years into the future and anticipates new developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that combine to profoundly change society.

UCP is also developing Happy! for Syfy, an adaptation of a graphic novel originally written by Morrison and co-created with artist Darick Robertson. Morrison and Taylor are set as executive producers and co-wrote the pilot; Taylor is attached to direct. This grimy crime black comedy features Nick Sax, a corrupt, intoxicated, ex-cop turned hit-man adrift in a twilight world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit goes wrong, Nick finds a bullet in his side, the cops and the mob on his tail and a monstrous killer in a Santa suit on the loose. But his world is about to be changed forever by Happy, a tiny (imaginary) blue winged horse with a relentlessly positive attitude.

This appears to be a second attempt at the adaptation for Amblin and Syfy – way back in May 2015 we reported on the adaptation with some of the same names, except Les Bohem was tied to it as the writer at the time.

Adding to its growing roster of major productions featuring science fiction’s most acclaimed franchises, Syfy is reuniting with Emmy® Award-winning Amblin Television to develop a scripted series based on Aldous Huxley’s classic novel Brave New World.

Syfy and Amblin previously collaborated on Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken, which won a 2003 Emmy® for Best Miniseries, as well as nominations in six other categories.

Brave New World is set in a world without poverty, war or disease. In this world, humans are given mind-altering drugs, free sex and rampant consumerism are the order of the day, and people no longer reproduce but are genetically engineered in “hatcheries.” Those who won’t conform are forced onto “reservations” – until one of these “savages” challenges the system, threatening the entire social order. First published in 1932, Brave New World was ranked fifth among the 100 best English language novels of the 20th Century by Modern Library.

Said Dave Howe, President, Syfy & Chiller: “Brave New World is one of the most influential genre classics of all time. Its provocative vision of a future gone awry remains as powerful and as timeless as ever. Promising to be a monumental television event, Brave New World is precisely the groundbreaking programming that is becoming the hallmark of Syfy.”

Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey of Amblin Television (The Americans, Falling Skies, Under the Dome) will be executive producers. Les Bohem (Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken) will write the screenplay and also executive produce.

Universal Cable Productions will serve as the studio.

“We’ve been looking for an opportunity to reunite with Les, Bonnie Hammer and Dave Howe, ever since our collaboration on Taken over a decade ago, and Brave New World is just the project we’ve been waiting for, to bring the band back together,” said Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, Co-Presidents, Amblin Television. “We’re thrilled to be working with Dawn Olmstead, with whom we produced The Whispers for ABC, and under the leadership of Jeff Wachtel and Universal Cable Productions, we know the project is in just the right hands.”

“Brave New World is science fiction at its best – a brilliant, poignant story that continues to fascinate and illuminate,” said Jeff Wachtel, President and Chief Content Officer, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. “And there is simply no better team than Amblin to bring this exquisite project to life.”

Brave New World is the latest high profile scripted project to be developed and produced by Syfy; others include the recently-announced series pickup of The Magicians, based on Lev Grossman’s best-selling books; the 10-part series The Expanse, airing December 2015 and starring Thomas Jane; Arthur C. Clarke’s epic mini-series Childhood’s End, also set to premiere this December; Gale Anne Hurd’s 13-episode thriller Hunters; David Goyer’s Superman prequel, Krypton; and Incorporated, a pilot from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.