As the upcoming feature in Impact’s Martial Arts Illustrated supplement discusses, Netflix and pay-per-view are taking a slice of the action market. What’s their next success story? Maybe ‘Altered Carbon’…
Netflix has been the source of many of the modern day TV series that everybody just loves to binge on, with House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and more recently the big hit Stranger Things to name just a few ‘Netflix Originals‘. And their domination shows no signs of resting as production for the big budget sci-fi series ‘Altered Carbon’ begins.
Yes, the grand opening of the new UK premises, Skydance Studios in Surrey, signals the start of what we found out would be happening months ago, with the studio’s first major production of Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 science fiction novel getting underway. The story is set in the twenty-fifth century, where humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.
Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs finds himself in the middle of a far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. Kovacs has already experienced death… but the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning. . . .
The series is expected to be a big hit when it is released next year, with producers confirming that the budget is bigger than that of the first three seasons of Game of Thrones – which certainly adds on a huge amount of pressure and expectation to the eventual result… It should have no problem with popularity if it follows in the book’s footsteps however, which proved a hit when it was released and even went on to win the Phillip K. Dick Award in 2003 for Best Novel… so it now all depends on how well the book adapts to the screen.
It will also come into question as to how much writer and producer Laeta Kalogridis sticks to the original novel. However, Kalogridis, who has previously worked on Shutter Island and Avatar, also has Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik on board and has confirmed that Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman will be playing the lead role in the series… so I don’t think there is too much to worry about.
Altered Carbon will be available on Netflix in 2017, and we are all hoping for another outstanding series…
