If the last ten years have taught us anything, it’s that industry fads and trends will endure as long as there’s an audience willing to fork out to watch them. From oafish vampires, to more apocalypses than Buffy stopped, if the demand is there then studios and networks will continue to produce the content.
During this period, sci-fi has seen a resurgence in popularity – mainly thanks to small screen serials. Today’s news indicates that that nerd-centric genre will continue its reign on the small screen, as Deadline reports that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has been earmarked by Spike TV to pen their adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy of sci-fi novels, Red Mars.
Adopting the name of the first book in the trilogy, the popular series will harness realistic ‘hard’ science to tell the fictional story of how mars was terraformed to accommodate and sustain a thriving human population. The trio of books – Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars – have won critical and public acclaim over the years, landing Robinson several decorated awards.
A property much-loved by fans, Red Mars will be safe in Stracyznski’s more than capable hands. Prior to signing on, he co-wrote the scripts for World War Z and Thor. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he’s currently tying up work on Netflix series Sense8, a collaborative venture with The Wachowskis. He won’t, however, be tackling the series alone. Game Of Thrones‘ executive producer Vince Gerardis is producing, with Robinson on hand as a consultant.
Before Red Mars hits the small screen, you can check out the official synopsis for Robinson’s trilogy below, and let us know; will you be tuning in to watch?
For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.
John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic “alchemists, ” Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life…and death.
The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces–for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.
Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.
