Syfy, Amblin develop Brave New World

US cable network Syfy and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television are working up a TV version of Aldous Huxley’s classic sci-fi novel Brave New World.

The pair are developing a scripted series based on the influential 1932 book, with Syfy’s NBCUniversal Cable Group stablemate Universal Cable Productions attached as the studio.

Brave New World is set in a world where genetically-engineered humans are given mind-altering drugs, free sex and engage in rampant consumerism in order to keep social order.

The TV version becomes the latest scripted show on Syfy’s packed slate.

Amblin co-presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (The Americans) will executive produce, with Les Bohem writing the script and exec-producing.

“Brave New World is one of the most influential genre classics of all time,” said Syfy president Dave Howe. “Its provocative vision of a future gone awry remains as powerful and as timeless as ever.

“Promising to be a monumental television event, Brave New World is precisely the groundbreaking programming that is becoming the hallmark of Syfy.”

The NBCU channel and Amblin previously worked together on miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken, which won an Emmy in 2003. Bohem also wrote that series.

“We’ve been looking for an opportunity to reunite with Les, Bonnie Hammer and Dave Howe, ever since our collaboration on Taken over a decade ago, and Brave New World is just the project we’ve been waiting for, to bring the band back together,” said Frank and Falvey.

In related news, horror-themed cable channel Chiller, which Howe also oversees as president, has ordered its first original series.

Slasher will follow a young woman returning to her hometown that becomes the centrepiece in a series of horrific copycat murders based of the killing of her parents years before.

Canada’s Shaftesbury is producing in association with Chiller and Canuck net Super Channel, with Content Television attached as distributor.

Aaron Martin (Killjoys, Degrassi: The Next Generation) is writer and creator, with Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie executive producing.

Funding comes from COGECO Program Development and Northern Ontario Heritage Funds, with production set to begin in Canada this summer ahead of a late 2015 television debut.