The Hollywood Reporter says AMC may produce a series based on Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars:
There might be a green light in the red planet’s future.
AMC is looking to outer space as it beefs up its slate, developing a series project with writer/executive producer Jonathan Hensleigh based on the sci-fi novel “Red Mars.”
“Mars,” a 1992 novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, chronicles the inhabitants of the first human colony on the planet.
[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]
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When Stan visited Washington for a book signing a couple of years ago he told me that the Sci-Fi Channel’s plans for doing a miniseries on the Mars books had been cancelled. I have to wonder if AMC picking up where Sci-Fi left off, or is this a new start?
I have spent a little time unsuccessfully looking for an answer to your question. One source noted the Sci-Fi Channel had had the rights, but I didn’t locate anything that said AMC was taking up a project already in development.
If a producer holds exclusive rights, it’s not uncommon for a her or him to take a project to another studio or network if the original one backs out, so it may very well be a continuation rather than a new start.
This can even be true after broadcast: After CBS declined to take the Genesis II pilot telefilm to series, Gene Roddenberry resold it to ABC, which made a second pilot telefilm with the same characters under the title Planet Earth. There was even a dumb-downed third pilot made by the studio without Gene after he walked away from it, under the title Strange New World, featuring the Damnation Alley bus which was later parked in the Dean Jefferies Automotive lot on Cahuenga Avenue, visible to anyone driving the Hollywood Freeway for so many years.
AMC picked up the rights after Sci-Fi gave up.