Amazon Developing ‘Ringworld’, ‘Lazarus’ & ‘Snow Crash’ In Genre Series Push

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Wow,talk about big names in SF. Super excited about Snow Crash as well as Ringworld. Not familiar with the Lazarus comic book.

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Amazon has set up three high-profile drama series for development: Ringworld, based on Larry Niven’s classic science fiction book; Lazarus, based on the comic book by Greg Rucka (Jessica Jones); and Snow Crash, based on Neal Stephenson’s cult novel.

The streaming platform has been ramping up its slate with new projects as part of a programming strategy overhaul in search of big, buzzy shows. A major emphasis has been put on fast-tracking big-scope genre drama series in the mold of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, with Sharon Tal, brought in earlier this year as Head Of Event Series, tasked with spearheading efforts. The deals for Ringworld, Lazarus and Snow Crash are part of that push.

http://deadline.com/2017/09/ringworld-lazarus-snow-crash-amazon-genre-drama-series-push-1202179073/

[Nictarion]

Lazarus is one of my favorite comics out right now. Tons of potential for a good show. I'll definitely be checking it out. Gotta nail the casting of Forever though. 

[Ran]

Not familiar with Lazarus, but Rucka and Lark are both good; remember Lark well from the Daredevil run with Brubaker. I think someone could have a lot of fun adapting Rucka's Queen & Country, but he drifted away into the Marvel/DC thing for a long while and I see only relatively recently come back to doing some creator-owned work. 

Ringworld could be interesting, but it has some distinct flaws (no, the Ringworld being unstable is not one of them!) related to Niven's limitations as a writer. I think that's stuff that could be improved a lot by a good writing team... but will they get one? We'll see. I'm actually something of a fan of the Known Space setting, which is pretty inventive.
 

 

[Kalbear]

Lazarus has a ton of really cool characters, an interesting and fairly unused premise (basically a dystopian world ruled largely by quasilegal corporate families with exceptionally large amounts of military power) and is quite edgy. Very good choice. 

Plus it has a woman assassin with a katana. 

[red snow]

I remember reading in the letters page a while back that Lazarus was being shopped around for TV. Given the guy in charge of Amazon TV wants his "Game of Thrones" these are all good options in terms of trying to get a hit show without mimicking GOT. I usually feel like the big shows are the ones not cashing in on the success of another but striking out on new ground.

That said, "Lazarus" definitely has the political elements of thrones and the megacorporations are similar in concept to noble houses. It's also an interesting take on capitalism to the extreme and "solutions" to over-population. It's definitely one of the best comics of the last few years and has the benefit of being relatively easy to adapt (which "saga" and rick remender's books aren't). Although it's slowed down to a glacial release pace of late - possibly due to Rucka being involved in getting the TV show up and running.

I don't know as much about the other two adaptations but I think this is a promising sign from Amazon who really do need a tentpole genre show to their name. The Man in the high castle is good but it's yet to create the buzz that "stranger things" and "westworld"