It’s been a long road bringing Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars) to the small screen. First it was James Cameron who held the rights, with the intention of creating a five-hour miniseries; later, Gale Ann Hurd had a similar idea, intended for Syfy. The next network to set its sights on the trilogy was AMC, back in 2008 and fresh off the start of Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
Finally, Spike TV took over the rights—and according to Deadline, they’ve signed on Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski to adapt Red Mars.
Red Mars tracks the eary colonization and terraforming of Mars, as told through the perspectives of the First Hundred who are chosen to leave behind an Earth suffering from overpopulation, ecological disasters, and the emergence of transnational corporations threatening to overthrow the world’s governments. On Mars, the First Hundred debate the ethics of terraforming, namely how much power humans should have over an entirely new planet.
“The heart of this series tackles the question of what it means to be human—and can we sustain our humanity under incredible duress,” said Sharon Levy, Spike TV’s Executive VP of Original Series. Robinson will serve as consultant on the series, which is being produced by Game of Thrones co-executive producer Vince Gerardis.
It will be interesting to see how Straczynski—who has often impacted SFF for the better—takes on Robinson’s Hugo and Nebula-winning trilogy.
I used to get excited when books I cherish got turned into tv and film. Now, I groan because the book experience will be lost, replaced by the tv or film experience. For example, I used to give books like Ender’s Game to people, and they’d come back amazed, gushing about what a great read they’d discovered. Now, I do the same and they’re like “No, thanks, I saw it, it sucked,” or “I heard [the movie] it sucked [so forget reading it]” or “I’ll just watch it instead [because it’s quick and easy and I can have the experience immediately.]”
I was hoping this one would stay a novel, because, well, it is one of the great novels, and somehow adapting it feels akin to cheapening the experience. In the end, I’ll let it go, because it’s out of my control. Still, I used to tell people Ender’s Game was one of my favorite books, and now I’m embarrased by that claim. I guess I’m afraid of losing another one of my favorite books.
Five hours seems short for the entire book. Not sure how JMS would be at an adaptation. Maybe it will help with his generally weak dialog skills.
I didn’t even realize SpikeTV was still a thing!
Hey Ender’s Game is still one of my favorite books! A difficult one to adapt to screen though, since so much of the weight comes from what is going on inside Ender’s head.
Red Mars – I would guess they are going to dump the science bits and mostly focus on the political story. Could be a good show though with a different feel than the book. I’ll be satisfied as long as they don’t make Arkady a ‘Red’ to reduce the sides in the debate.