SyFy
has greenlit a 10-episode TV series based on James S.A. Corey's
Expanse series of SF novels.
The Expanse consists of three published novels to date (
Leviathan Wakes,
Caliban's War and
Abaddon's Gate), with the fourth book,
Cibola Burn, due in June. There are also several short stories and novellas available in the setting. The author, James S.A. Corey, is a pen-name for fantasy author Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, whose day is being George R.R. Martin's assistant.
Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (
Children of Men,
Iron Man) are attached as writers, executive producers and probably show-runners, with casting and the hiring of directors due to start soon.
"The Expanse is epic in scale and scope and promises to be Syfy's most ambitious series to date," Syfy president Dave Howe said.
"Bringing this coveted book franchise to television with our partners
at Alcon and the Sean Daniel Co. is a giant win for Syfy, reinforcing
our overall strategy to produce bold, provocative and compelling sci-fi
fantasy stories. The Expanse joins a killer lineup of high-concept, high-quality series, along with recently announced original projects Ascension, 12 Monkeys, the renewal of Helix, and the soon to premiere Dominion."
This is interesting news. SyFy's commitment to returning to proper SF after years of cheesy B-movies and pointless repeats of wrestling is welcome, although so far not exactly paying off:
Helix in particular is a dreadful television series. But with the right cast and crew,
The Expanse (with its budget-friendly claustrophobic starships and space stations) could be done very well. I'd like to see a more accomplished space opera series on screen, like
The Night's Dawn Trilogy,
The Revelation Space Series or
The Gap Series, but those would all be bigger-budgeted propositions and will probably have to wait until someone with the resources of HBO (or even AMC, Starz or Showtime) decide they want their own big-budget SF series.
