A few years ago, the A.I.-themed ‘The Machine‘ proved a solid entry in the genre and something of a cult success. Syfy will now be turning it into a series…
Syfy announced this week that they have a slate of original programming lined up for the near future. The first is The Machine, a series inspired by the 2013 film that starred Arrow / Legends of Tomorrow‘s Caity Lotz as an artificial intelligence given form by boundary-pushing scientist Toby Stephens. Though it drew inspiration from a long-line of genre productions – ranging through Metropolis, Blade Runner etc – it was a mid-budget outing that took itself just seriously enough for the result to be genuinely interesting as well as entertaining. In a year where technology was often in the news and the likes of Ex Machina also made an impact, it was clear there was a market for the A.I. themes. The series, which would recast the main parts would be set, once more, in the near future and expand to tell the story of six ‘interwoven’ characters – each of whom ‘holds the key to humanity’s victory or its destruction’… Caradog James, the director of the film will also be involved as an executive producer.
It will be interesting to see how it fares after the introduction of the bigger-budgeted Westworld revamp due next month from HBO…
In addition to The Machine, Syfy is also moving forward provisionally with The Haunted (a story of a fractured family where sour siblings reunite after their parents’ death and find that the ‘ghosts’ of the past may be more literal than they thought) and Happy! an adaptation of Grant Morrison and Brian Taylor’s Image Comics graphic novel about Nick Sax, a rough, cynical, unapologetic hitman whose life is turned around when he starts seeing… an eternally-optimistic blue-winged horse! (Must be a Saturday!)
