Amazon Developing Series From ‘Westworld’ Creators Based On William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’
It seems ‘Westworld’ creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have gotten a taste for shows which deal with people monkeying around with futuristic tech, as Amazon announces it has put into development a series based on William Gibson’s 2014 novel ‘The Peripheral’.
The story revolves around Flynne Fisher, a woman in a near-future America in which technology has started to subtly alter society. Flynne discovers a hidden connection to a very different reality – and the dark future of her own.
Nolan & Joy are producing the show via their Kilter Films production company, and have landed a “script-to-series” order. That means if Amazon like the script, the show bypasses the pilot stage and goes straight to series. Scott B. Smith has the job of making sure that happens as he is the man penning the show. It’s fair to think it’s in safe hands as Smith won an Oscar for his adaptation of his own novel ‘A Simple Plan’ in 1998.
Athena Wickham of Kilter Films is set to exec produce along with Nolan & Joy. Director/Producer Vincenzo Natali (‘Westworld’, ‘The Strain’, ‘Hannibal’) will also exec produce and direct the drama if goes to series.
Along with writing ‘The Peripheral’, William Gibson is an extremely influential science fiction author, and is largely credited for pioneering the cyberpunk genre and for inventing the term “cyberspace”. His previous work includes his acclaimed debut novel ‘Neuromancer’, ‘Virtual Light’ which kicked off his Bridge trilogy, and ‘Pattern Recognition’, the first book in his Blue Ant trilogy.
Adapting a novel from someone like Gibson fits perfectly into Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos’ big push to find the next big, epic drama like ‘Game Of Thrones’. They already have a ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series in development, along with a ‘Conan the Barbarian’ series and a show based on Iain M. Banks ‘Culture’ novels. If you don’t yet have an Amazon Prime subscription, now might be a good time to look into it!
