Syfy Announces 3001 Adaptation with Ridley Scott

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Syfy has announced that Scott Free Productions and Warner Horizon Television will be working on an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s 3001: The Final Odyssey as a Syfy original miniseries.

Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker will executive produce along with Stuart Beattie, who is also writing the screenplay. Clayton Krueger is on board as a co-executive producer. “I have always been a fan of Clarke’s extraordinary Odyssey series, and certainly Kubrick’s adaptation of 2001.  I am thrilled to be part of bringing that legacy to audiences and continuing the great cinematic tradition that this story and its creators deserve,” said Scott.

The story begins with the discovery of astronaut Frank Poole’s body, floating in space after his death at the hands of HAL9000 in 2001. First published in 1997, thirty years after Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Clarke’s first Odyssey novel, 3001: The Final Odyssey details the “final fate of all Humankind” through complex characters with conflicting agendas.

The estates of both Kubrick and Clarke have offered their full support for 3001: The Final Odyssey.

“Arthur C. Clarke is the father of modern science fiction,” said Syfy President Dave Howe. “We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Scott Free and Warner Horizon Television to bring to the screen, for the very first time, the final chapter of this extraordinary masterpiece.”

This announcement follows the news that Syfy is also adapting Childhood’s End, and is consistent with the recent push for big-budget miniseries and scripted space opera. In a recent Entertainment Weekly article, head of programming Bill McGoldrick said the network is making strides to get back to the business of being a science fiction channel with a broad demographic appeal.

“…when you look at The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad or anything that I worked on at USA, we are at least at that level, if not above. We are trying to bring in directors, producers, you name it, that can execute. I certainly think our shows are already looking better than they have in the past because the corporation supporting us [Comcast], and the corporation understands that we should be investing in genre right now. That’s been the biggest pleasant surprise I’ve had since I’ve arrived — the amount of resources Comcast is providing and kind of everybody up the food chain is recognizing that to pull off sci-fi in the way that we really want to pull it off, you do have to spend. You don’t have to be a reckless drunken sailor, but you do have to sometimes even outspend basic cable competitors for the shows to look the way they will.”

Even the reality programming may be getting a makeover, as McGoldrick has brought in a new exec for that division with the mandate of making shows that fit the channel better. “On our channel, it’s going to have to be more distinctive. We are going to have to invent formats that are specific for our network.”

So is this the renaissance of Syfy? Time will tell. Hopefully we’ll know something before 3001.