Renowned curator of all-around quality content, SyFy, has ordered a mini-series adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s 3001: The Final Odyssey, to be adapted by Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and produced by Beattie and Ridley Scott. Why they decided to skip the middle three books is a mystery, but as they say, SyFy works in mysterious ways.
According to Wikipedia, “3001 follows the adventures of Frank Poole, the astronaut killed by the HAL-9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. One thousand years later, Poole’s freeze-dried body is discovered in the Kuiper belt by a comet-collecting space tug named the Goliath, and revived. Poole is next taken home to explore and learn about the Earth in the year 3001. Some of its notable features include the BrainCap, a brain-computer interface technology; genetically-engineered dinosaur servants; a space drive; and four gigantic space elevators located evenly around the Equator. Human beings have also colonized the Jovian moons Ganymede and Callisto. TMA-1, the black monolith found on the Moon in 1999, has been brought to Earth in 2006 and installed in front of the United Nations Building in New York City.” Sounds…heady.
Obviously, people will be shocked and outraged that someone would go anywhere near cinematic Allfather Kubrick’s work, but I say settle down and give it a chance. Ridley Scott is a sci-fi demigod in his own right, and I doubt he would piss on Kubrick’s legacy (and the legacy of dinosaur servants in film). Just a few days ago, SyFy said they want to get back to dark and gritty stuff more akin to Battlestar Galactica as opposed to fun, cheeky stuff like Eureka, and 3001 and its dinosaur servants could be just the thing to put them back on the science fiction map.
And, I mean, worst case scenario: Stabley Kubrick rises from his grave and fights Ridley Scott, which would be awesome to see.
[via /film]
