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posted by martyb on Sunday October 01 2017, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the we'll-see-what-you-did-there dept.

Amazon is dramatically ramping up its production for next year, moving forward with three new high-concept series, Variety has learned. These new efforts represent a significant production investment from the studio, which is currently in preproduction, production or post on 67 TV series and 20 movies around the world.

The streaming service is developing the following:

• “Lazarus,” based on a comic book by Greg Rucka (“Marvel’s Jessica Jones”), is set in an alternative near future, where the world has been divided among 16 rival families, who run their territories in a feudal system. Each family has allies and enemies among the other families. To crush uprisings and fight wars, most families have a Lazarus: a one-person kill squad.

Rucka serves as writer and executive producer on “Lazarus,” along with Michael Lark (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) and Angela Cheng Caplan.

• “Snow Crash,” which is based on Neal Stephenson’s cult novel, is a one-hour science fiction drama set in futuristic America. In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain.

A co-production with Paramount Television, “Snow Crash” is executive produced by Joe Cornish (“Ant-Man”) and Frank Marshall (“Back to the Future”).

• “Ringworld,” a co-production with MGM, is based on Larry Niven’s sci-fi book series from the 70’s. It tells the story of Louis Gridley Wu, a bored man celebrating his 200th birthday in a technologically-advanced, future Earth. Upon being offered one of the open positions on a voyage, Louis joins a young woman and two aliens to explore Ringworld, the remote artificial ring beyond “Known Space.”

Not bad, but maybe we're all better off going outside to play.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Sunday October 01 2017, @06:16PM (13 children)

    by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Sunday October 01 2017, @06:16PM (#575631) Homepage Journal

    Perhaps a series based on Zelazny's Amber [wikipedia.org] books? Or maybe Fred Pohl's Heechee saga [wikipedia.org] (although it is apparently being done already [variety.com]?

    How about a series based on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon [wikipedia.org] or The Diamond Age [wikipedia.org] instead of Snow Crash? Both are arguably superior novels.

    Certainly a feature made from Al Bester's The Demolished Man [wikipedia.org] could be pretty darn good.

    And Nightfall [wikipedia.org] by Asimov/Silverberg could be quite good as well.

    C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner [wikipedia.org] series would make great TV I think, too.

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @06:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @06:30PM (#575638)

    I'd suggest some PKD, but luckily that's being done already too, in the form of a British anthology series adapting short stories. It's called "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams", and so far (2 episodes in) it's well worth watching, whether piratically or whenever it becomes legally available in your country.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:35PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:35PM (#575657)

    Never liked Stephenson, except for The Baroque Cycle.

    From Amazon's point of view, Snow Crash makes sense—everyone in the demographic has heard of it. IT'S 2017 AND STILL NO NEUROMANCER THOUGH. By the time that gets adapted to anything, the people who read it will be long dead. (But if I was going to do a Gibson series it would be the Virtual Light trilogy.)

    Ringworld sounds good to me. Lazarus is the kind of thing that makes a fine comic, but probably not great television.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 02 2017, @12:40AM (3 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday October 02 2017, @12:40AM (#575718) Journal

      That's funny, I thought the Baroque Cycle, which did have its moments, was too clever for its own good. Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and even Zodiac I enjoyed.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @10:21AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 02 2017, @10:21AM (#575837)

        The Baroque Cycle would be perfect if they were willing to commit to it for a few seasons, and to the budget. There is a lot of stuff going down in it, and the majority of it would make fantastic television.

        Cryptonomicon was too much about that thing they were on about. And the other people who were in the way. I hate to say this but I can't even remember many of the details because it was all pretty flimsy, like there were a list of things he wanted in the book and didn't spend a lot of time on writing a story. Even the techno fun of various sorts he failed to make half as interesting as when someone does it in real life.

        Snow Crash was not very compelling for me. I was a bit annoyed by the titular plot point. Ok, a lot annoyed. My non-programmer friends were all over it though. The nuke was pretty cool. That's all I liked.

        Didn't read the others.

      • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday October 02 2017, @01:12PM (1 child)

        by deimtee (3272) on Monday October 02 2017, @01:12PM (#575877) Journal

        I always thought that Neal needed to get a co-writer to do the endings with him. His books are great for almost all of the way through, then it's "ok how can I wrap all this up in 20 pages".

        --
        If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 02 2017, @01:43PM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday October 02 2017, @01:43PM (#575887) Journal

          Maybe, but a cowboy fighting his way with a rifle through the heart of Shanghai to the water front makes for a pretty good ending in my book.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Monday October 02 2017, @12:55AM

      by stormwyrm (717) on Monday October 02 2017, @12:55AM (#575727) Journal
      Seems William Gibson never did have much luck with having his stuff adapted to film. Johnny Mnemonic had an awesome script, but that's all it had going for it; everything else about the production sucked. New Rose Hotel was just plain weird, and was an odd choice out of his bibliography to make a movie out of.
      --
      Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 02 2017, @12:42AM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday October 02 2017, @12:42AM (#575719) Journal

    I'm surprised nobody ever tried to adapt David Brin's Uplift novels. Startide Rising is one of my favorite sci-fi books. Certainly the special effects are there now to do it justice.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday October 02 2017, @10:09AM (3 children)

      by Rivenaleem (3400) on Monday October 02 2017, @10:09AM (#575834)

      I'd love to see an Uplift adaptation, just to see Andy Serkis play a dolphin.

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 02 2017, @10:35AM (2 children)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday October 02 2017, @10:35AM (#575840) Journal

        Andy Serkis would be a great choice for an uplifted dolphin or the chimpanzee, whose role, if I recall correctly, was just as important.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday October 02 2017, @12:35PM (1 child)

          by Rivenaleem (3400) on Monday October 02 2017, @12:35PM (#575870)

          We've already seen him play an uplifted Chimp. Wouldn't want him to get typecast.

          • (Score: 1) by Booga1 on Monday October 02 2017, @08:02PM

            by Booga1 (6333) on Monday October 02 2017, @08:02PM (#576147)

            Might be a bit late for that. He's already been:

            • Kong, in King Kong
            • Monkey, in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
            • Caesar, in the Planet of the Apes series
  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday October 02 2017, @01:39PM

    by crafoo (6639) on Monday October 02 2017, @01:39PM (#575886)

    Heechee saga is pretty great stuff. I seem to remember it spiraling into some survivor-remorse stuff though and I put it down.