Steven Spielberg's Amblin, Syfy Adapting Classic Novel 'Brave New World' (Exclusive)

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1:00 PM PDT 5/5/2015 by Lesley Goldber

The Aldous Huxley novel was ranked fifth among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century by Modern Library. 

The Emmy-winning team behind Syfy's Taken is reuniting for another science fiction classic.

Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television is adapting Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World as a scripted series for the NBC Universal-owned cable network, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Brave New World — ranked fifth among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century by Modern Library — is set in a world without poverty, war or disease. Humans are given mind-altering drugs, free sex and rampant consumerism are the order of the day, and people no longer reproduce but are genetically engineered in "hatcheries." Those who won’t conform are forced onto "reservations," until one of the "savages" challenges the system, threatening the entire social order.

Read more Syfy's Plan: More Space Operas, Less 'Sharknado' [2]

First published in 1932, Brave New World will be adapted by writer Les Bohem, who penned Taken, which won the 2003 Emmy for best miniseries and racked up six other nominations. Amblin TV co-presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey will executive produce alongside Bohem. The drama hails from Universal Cable Productions.

Brave New World marks a reunion for Taken producers Frank and Falvey with Bohem, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group chairman Bonnie Hammer andSyfy president Dave Howe, as well as with Universal Cable Productions executive vp development Dawn Olmstead, with whom they produced ABC's summer drama The Whispers.

"Brave New World is one of the most influential genre classics of all time," Howe said. "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 ofSyfy."

Read more Amblin TV Chiefs on Spielberg's 'Minority Report' Reboot, 'Extant' Changes and Their Message to Netflix [3]

For Syfy, Brave New World joins a rapidly growing roster of original scripted programming as the cabler renews its focus on science fiction. That lineup includes the newly ordered series adaptation of Lev Grossman's The Magicians [4] as well as 12 Monkeys (already renewed for season two), big swings The Expanse and Childhood's End, Hunters (from The Walking Dead EP Gale Anne Hurd, due in 2016) as well as Olympus, Defiance, Haven, Z Nation and Dark Matter, among others.
For Amblin, meanwhile, should Brave New World go to series, it would join a roster that includes the final season of TNT's Falling Skies [5] and freshman Public Morals [6], ABC's The Whispers [7], CBS' Under the Dome and Extant as well as FX's The Americans. They'll likely add to that already impressive roster with Fox'sMinority Report reboot, which is considered a lock to go to series.

Bohem is repped by UTA and Linda Lichter.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com [8]
Twitter: @Snoodit [9]

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[2] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/syfys-plan-more-space-operas-687454
[3] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/amblin-tv-chiefs-spielbergs-minority-745720
[4] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/magicians-drama-ordered-series-at-793104
[5] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/last-ship-falling-skies-major-719560
[6] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tnt-orders-drama-series-kyra-702032
[7] http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/abc-orders-how-get-away-702523
[8] mailto:Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
[9] https://twitter.com/snoodit