Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon Coming To Netflix as a TV Series
Altered Carbon TV Series
If you’re a Geektown Radio listener, you may remember last August we interviewed to the novelist Richard Morgan. One of the topics that came up was the long rumoured movie based on his first ‘Takeshi Kovacs’ novel Altered Carbon. Whilst this isn’t a movie, it’s possibly something much much better. A series coming to Netflix based on that very book!
For the uninitiated, Altered Carbon is set in the 25th century, where your consciousness can be stored in the cloud, so your mind can be transferred to a new body. The lead protagonist is called Takeshi Kovacs, who started on the wrong side of the tracks before being enlisting in the military joining the elite Envoy Corps. However, after leaving the military, he returns to his earlier criminal ways as a merc, which results in his incarceration. Unlike prison today though, rather than deal with all those annoying bodies you have to feed, the government only stores your mind, which leads to 500 year of imprisonment before being released to take on a murder case, in a world where the technology has made death obsolete. If he can solve the case, he can start a new life on Earth.
Logoeta Kalogridis
The show is being produced and written by Logoeta Kalogridis, the writer behind Shutter Island, Terminator Genisys, and the Bionic Woman tv series (which was a cruel casualty of the writers strike a few years back.) Kalogridis acquired the rights to Altered Carbon 4 years ago, but it’s taken until now to find a home, and thankfully it’s Netflix. It’s one of those books which would benefit from being outside the usual restrictions of the US network system, and Netflix have been batting 10/10 with pretty much everything they’ve commissioned so far.
Kalogridis serves as executive producer/showrunner, with Skydance Productions, who co-produced Star Trek Into Darkness & Star Trek Beyond with Bad Robot, and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation & Ghost Protocol with Paramount. They also produce the brilliant Grace and Frankie for Netflix.
No news on when it’s likely to air it’s 10 episode first season, but Altered Carbon has a strong team behind it, and will definitely be a show to watch out for.
Dave has over 20 years experience in the digital industry, and is founder and editor of Geektown. Obviously a huge geek himself, he can often be found in front of the latest tv show or movie, on various video games, or with his head in a comic book.
I WANT to believe… (As a favourite character of mine once said).
Unfortunately, the writer/producers credits do not exactly fill me with confidence…. Terminator Genisys??? The Bionic Woman reboot???? These sort of people should not be asked to make quality SF tv! (And yes, I DID watch it, although I didn’t catch any of Shutter Island).
Altered Carbon was the best debut SF novel from a writer I have read in YEARS. Even now, years later, it still stands out… (Shame Woken Furies / Broken Angels / Market Forces didn’t quite reach those dizzying heights, although they were quite readable)…
Netflix, please don’t screw this up! (I might even subscribe to watch it if it gets half decent reviews)…