Given that I’m in the middle of writing, or rather rambling, about spoilers (for an upcoming post), I didn’t really have time today to come up with some deep, great, thought-provoking content for you.
I deeply apologize.
Anyhow, there has been a lot of interesting news in the last few days.
For starters, Bryan Singer is set to direct Battlestar Galactica for the big-screen.
Before you ask, this version won’t have anything to do with the current Ron D. Moore canon from the Syfy show.
Universal owns the rights so they can do whatever.
I’m assuming they think they are holding a million-dollar franchise they can reboot whenever they want to make tons of cash (think Superman or Batman).
And since we’re on the subject of Bryan Singer, The Usual Suspect‘s screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie is going to pen the Wolverine sequel set in Japan. The story will be based off Chris Claremont & Frank Miller’s graphic novel.
Lots of work for McQuarrie. Indeed, as you might also recall, he’s also currently working on an NBC show, Persons Unknown.
The X-Files‘ Frank Spotnitz has meanwhile a few new opportunities set at HBO and at FX.
He has indeed penned two futuristic drama pilots that could move into series (though with the current track-record held by HBO, that’s going to be tough).
The first potential show is named Humanitas and is a medical-thriller where advances in medicine have become so massive that doctors face everyday dilemmas while trying to fight against potential pandemics.
Sounds like Medical Investigation meets ReGenesis.
The other project is based on Robert Silverberg’s 1970/1971 novel, The World Inside. The story is set in 2381 where the human population has reached over 75 billion people. And where urban centers (in this case a massive city-tower named Urban Monads aka Urbmon) have been built to control all the hate going on around (all wars and crimes have been eliminated).
Also, bonus points, since we’re talking of an HBO show: there’s lots of sex.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the rest of the story:
The Urbmon population is supported by the conversion of all of the Earth’s habitable land area not taken up by Urbmons, to agriculture. The theoretical limit of the population supported by this arrangement is estimated to be 200 billion. The farmers live a very different lifestyle, with strict birth control. Farmers trade their produce for technology and the two societies rarely have direct contact; even their languages are mutually unintelligible.
The Urbmons are a world of total sexual freedom where men are expected to engage in “night walking”; a woman refusing an invitation for sex is considered a crime. In this world it is a blessing to have children: most people are married at 12 and parents at 14. Just thinking of controlling families is considered a faux pas. Privacy has been dispensed with due to the limited area. Because the need to be outdoors and to travel has been eliminated, thoughts of wanderlust are considered perverse.
[…]Although great effort is spent to maintain a stable society, the Urban Monad lifestyle causes mental illness in a small percentage of people, and this fate befalls the book’s two main characters. “Social engineers” reprogram those who are approaching an unacceptable level of behavior.
Given the extremes of life in the Urban Monads, law enforcement and the concept of justice employ a zero tolerance policy. There are usually no trials, and punishment is swift – anyone who threatens the stability of the Urbmon society (a “flippo”) is forcibly removed by being thrown into a shaft that terminates in the building’s power generator. This gives one of the book’s characters the idea that humanity has been selectively bred for life within the Urbmons.
Frank Spotnitz is, on this one, co-writing the script with The L Word‘s Adam Rapp.
As for his FX show, named Arc, it centers around a Jason Bourne-type character trying to fit into normal life.
Burn Notice anyone?