Amazon resurrects CULTURE TV project, based on the Iain M. Banks novels

Amazon have decided to have a second go at adapting the Culture series of science fiction novels by the late Scottish author Iain M. Banks.

Amazon previously put an adaptation into development in 2018, with Jeff Bezos himself - a huge fan of the series - ordering work to begin. Dennis Kelly (Utopia) was in charge, with a guaranteed season order apparently in the works if the scripts were good. However, the project appeared to stall and was then cancelled in 2020, after the Banks Estate themselves withdrew from negotiations. Speculation at the time was that Banks, an avowed socialist, may have not been keen on working with the ultimate capitalist enterprise, and perhaps the Estate belatedly realised that. However, other reports suggested a more obvious explanation: Amazon was adapting The Expanse at the time and may have not had the appetite for airing two space opera shows simultaneously, even if they are remarkably different in tone and setting.

Apparently, with The Expanse concluded for now, the earlier project may be back on. This time Amazon has teamed with Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown) and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, Eternals) to develop a new take on the idea. Yu will showrun whilst Zhao will executive produce and may direct; Zhao is also developing the Buffy the Vampire Slayer legacy sequel show with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

As with the previous project, this adaptation will begin by adapting Consider Phlebas (1987), the first-published novel in the series. The other books may follow. Consider Phlebas sees the Culture, a post-scarcity utopian society, and the expansionist Idiran Empire clashing for control of a Culture Mind, an ultra-advanced AI, that has taken refuge on a forbidden planet. The protagonist is Horza, a shapeshifting mercenary working for the Idirans. In a 1995 magazine interview, Banks said (possibly joking) that he'd have cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role himself.

The Culture is something of an anthology project, with each novel and story having its own setting, cast of characters and storyline, with only passing references to the other stories, with sometimes centuries and thousands of light-years separating the different stories. Banks published ten Culture books in total, each with a very different tone: Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, The State of the Art, Excession, Inversions, Look to Windward, Matter, Surface Detail and The Hydrogen Sonata. This means that Amazon would not necessarily have to adapt each book in rapid turn, and could choose what order to approach the project in.

Banks wrote mainstream fiction under the name "Iain Banks" and science fiction under the name "Iain M. Banks" (a conceit which became a running gag in the Simon Pegg and Edgar wright movie Hot Fuzz), publishing twenty-eight books in total between 1984 and his untimely death from cancer in 2013.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER legacy sequel series in development

A new Buffy the Vampire Slayer project is in development at Hulu. This is not really surprising, with multiple attempts to resurrect the franchise having been discussed since not long after it concluded the first time around in 2003. However, this attempt appears to be closer to a pilot deal than any of the others, and is the first to have Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, attached in an official capacity.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer started as a movie script written by Joss Whedon. The resulting film, released in 1992 and starring Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland, did poorly at the box office but found a dedicated cult fanbase on home video. This led to a TV show being picked up by Fox in 1996, for airing on The WB starting the following year, with Whedon as showrunner and Gellar in the starring role. Buffy the Vampire Slayer ran for seven seasons (ending in 2003) and 144 episodes, winning both critical and commercial acclaim for its canny mixture of supernatural fantasy, horror, drama and light comedy. Its spin-off show, Angel, ran for five seasons and 110 episodes from 1999 to 2004.

Although the story continued in comics, attempts to resurrect the franchise in other formats failed. Spin-offs focusing around the characters of Spike (James Marsters), Giles (Tony Head) and Faith (Eliza Dushku) were in development at one time or another, but none made it off the ground.

In 2010 an attempt to reboot the franchise as a new movie series foundered, whilst a 2018 attempt at a total reboot with Whedon producing and Monica Owusu-Breen showrunning also failed to gain traction. Whedon's subsequent fall from grace for alleged toxic behaviour on the sets of his various projects seemed to stall any further development on projects closely associated with his name.

Sarah Michelle Gellar distanced herself from the show after its conclusion, not attending conventions and gently discouraging speculation over a reboot or sequel with herself involved. She starred in two Scooby Doo movies with husband Freddie Prinze Jr., as well as Cruel Intentions and The Grudge, and occasional TV work, most recently Paramount+'s Wolf Pack. She has mainly focused on business interests outside of television and film. However, she recently spoke of Buffy more warmly having sat down to watch the show with her own children for the first time, and found the experience rewarding.

The new iteration of the show being discussed is a successor series which will focus on a new regular cast, with Gellar's Buffy and possibly other actors from the original series appearing in recurring roles. Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao (Eternals, Nomadland) is being touted as a producer, writer and possibly director for some episodes. Nora Zuckerman and Lila Zuckerman (Poker Face, Prodigal Sons, Agents of SHIELD, Fringe) will produce and showrun. Rights-holders Fran Kuzui and Kaz Kuzui (who produced the 1992 film) will produce alongside Dolly Parton, whose production company worked on the original series. Whedon is not involved at this time.

The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended with Buffy finding a way of creating more Slayers, allowing others to take over the burden of saving the world and allowing her to have a vacation. Some of the spin-off media posited that Buffy would effectively become a mentor to a whole new generation of Slayers, and working more in the capacity of a general directing her forces against larger threats. Whether this project would go in a similar direction, or return to the status quo of a single Slayer, remains to be seen.