Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Scalzi's Redshirts being developed for TV


John Scalzi's novel Redshirts is being developed for a limited run TV series on the US FX basic cable network.

Redshirts won last year's Hugo Award for Best Novel. It's a humorous take on Star Trek etc.

FX Adapting Sci-Fi Novel ‘Redshirts’ As Limited Series (Tor)

More from John Scalzi's blog (whatever): "You should right now get used to the idea that the series will not exactly mirror the book."


At least I like the idea of "limited series".

Sounds interesting. Haven't read the book yet, but I've generally scanned it. I wonder what kind of market they're aiming at. The Trekkies will hate it. General sitcom viewers probably won't like it much either. Eewww, it's that scifi stuff.

Trekkie here and I did not completely hate the book.

V.W. wrote: "Haven't read the book yet, but I've generally scanned it...."

I thought it was a fairly entertaining read. Cute idea (starship crewmen begin to notice patterns in their collective mortality and try to do something about it.) Smooth writing. Scalzi has written a couple of other decent action/comedy SF/F books (The Android's Dream, Agent to the Stars, Fuzzy Nation), and he has a talent for humorous/snarky dialogue, Even in his more serious books, such as Old Man's War (if he's involved in producing the scripts in any way, I bet they get described as "Weedonesque".)

The other hand, It would not have been my choice for the Hugo. But then I may have a bias against comedy in awards (I guess the Oscars share that. Odd bias, that, since for the last two SF/F magazines I read, my favorite stories were comedies.)


V.W. wrote: "I wonder what kind of market they're aiming at....."

I wonder this about most of what's on American TV these days.

I liked "Agent to the Stars". Some nice biting humour and a decent plot.

I was worried Redshirts would read like one big gimmick/elaborate joke set-up, but I found it both an entertaining read & interesting enough (with the appendices, even if I do think they might have been a bit much overall) to think about a bit since finishing, too.

I can see how a series would have to quickly move past the book's plotlines to be entertaining, but the idea of a series that takes the big ideas of Star Trek seriously while making fun of some of the tropes appeals to me on premise.

V.W. wrote: "Sounds interesting. Haven't read the book yet, but I've generally scanned it. I wonder what kind of market they're aiming at. The Trekkies will hate it. General sitcom viewers probably won't like i..."

I'm not sure if I'd call myself a Trekkie or not but I have always had a love for the orifinal series especially, and the others to one degree or another. I really like Redshirts even though it was poking fun at the long running theme in Star Trek of no name characters getting killed off for the sake of the story. Of course there will be those fans that do not take well to the thing they love being made a joke. I would say they probably need to lighten up.
I really like Scalzi's writing and have read all of the Old Man's War series. He does, as G33z3r says, have a talent for snarky dialog and I like that. I'm known for some pretty snarky comments myself... I did try to read The Androids Dream and just could not get into it. I think it moved too slowly at the beginning.
I do hope they take the show seriously, even the comedic parts, and make it good viewing. Good sci-fi shows are few and far between...

Eric wrote: "V.W. wrote: "Sounds interesting. Haven't read the book yet, but I've generally scanned it. I wonder what kind of market they're aiming at. The Trekkies will hate it. General sitcom viewers probably..."

And some named characters as well, like Sito Jaxa. Such a pointless death.

I didn't read Redshirts. Didn't like the premise. Sounds like you guys liked it? Should I give it a shot? Scalzi's hit and miss for me. I gotta be in the mood for the popcorn sci-fi stuff, because that's what I think he does well.

Mike

Michael wrote: "I didn't read Redshirts. Didn't like the premise. Sounds like you guys liked it? Should I give it a shot? Scalzi's hit and miss for me...."

I thought it was "OK", a slightly amusing premise driven more by Scalzi's usual snappy dialogue. Certainly not my Hugo choice. (Better than 2013's The Human Division, IMO. If you liked The Android's Dream's mix of self-aware absurdist plot plus snappy dialog,...

I loved his book Zoe's Tale. If the TV series could have the same enjoyable mix of humor, tech, and action, I think it would be worth seeing.

Scalzi's "Old Man's War" is acquired for TV by SyFy Network

US SyFy network has acquired Old Man's War & sequels for a TV (proposed) series to be called "Ghost Brigades" (which is the title of the sequel.)

Article in Tor.com

report from Hollywood Reporter

comments from Scalzi on his blog

Scalzi's "Lock In" optioned for TV Deal

John Scalzi has sold yet another of his properties to television, As his latest novel Lock In, has been optioned by Legendary Television for possible development is a television series (the next step would be putting together a creative team for a pilot episode.)

Legendary TV is a very new subsidiary of Legendary Entertainment. The latter is (partly) responsible for the Nolan Batman films, Watchmen, Man of Steel, Inception, Pacific Rim, 300, and Godzilla. So on the movie side, at least, a pretty good pedigree, although they are just getting started on the small screen.

By the way, Lock In is our Contemporary SF Novel discussion topic for this month (so maybe you can direct your thoughts there? )

At this point, I've given up starting a new topic for each Scalzi TV sale, and just lumped them all in one topic! :)

Lock In Acquired for Television by Legendary TV (Scalzi's blog)

"Holy crap, my life these days." - John Scalzi

Legendary TV Buys John Scalzi Novel ‘Lock In’ (Variety)

Edit: link to group Lock In discussion topic

That's great for Scalzi. He's struggled for quite a while to make a name for himself from what I've read. Glad he's made it.

Jim wrote: "That's great for Scalzi. He's struggled for quite a while to make a name for himself from what I've read. Glad he's made it."

With 3 active TV deals, he's turning into Michael Crichton.

Its a good thing that mainstream TV is paying more attention to sci fi but they could pick some other authors as well.

Not actually a TV deal, but
John Scalzi, Science Fiction Writer, Signs $3.4 Million Deal for 13 Books .

(I wasn't actually going to repost this story, until it showed up in my New York Times audio digest this morning & I noticed it made NYT website's front page. I figure if the mainstream media is impressed, must be a big deal.)

Mr. Scalzi discusses the deal in more detail on his Whatever blog. (I notice he found a less formal picture than the NYTime used to accompany it...)

Thought I'd add that The Washington Post interviewed Scalzi about the contract.

John Scalzi on his monster book deal, sci-fi fandom and diversity in fiction.

Netflix Grabs Hold Of John Scalzi’s Sci-Fi Novel ‘Old Man’s War’

This is the third time Scalzi has sold the rights to Old Man's War universe. Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades have been previously optioned by Paramount & SyFy. Now it's Netflix. Is Scalzi becoming like Max Bialystock, discovering Hollywood can make him more money if they don't make a movie from his story?

Did I hear correctly that Scalzi owns the trademark on "snarky dialogue"?