A series adaptation of Andrew Niccol‘s fantastic dystopian sci-fi movie Gattaca is in the works at Showtime from Homeland duo Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.
Gansa will serve as showrunner and executive produce Gattaca alongside Gordon and series co-creator Craig Borten, the Oscar-nominated co-writer of Dallas Buyers Club.
Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, Uma Thurman, and Alan Arkin starred in the original 1997 film, which takes place in a futuristic society where hopeful parents use eugenics to screen their potential children for genetic defects in order to ensure they inherit their best hereditary traits. The protagonist (Hawke) is considered an “in-valid” because he was conceived outside the eugenics program, so if he ever hopes to realize his dream of going to space, he must assume the identity of a genetically superior person who has lost the use of his legs (Law).
Sony Pictures Television will produce the series, as Gansa and Gordon are currently under a rich overall deal at the studio. Gattaca would be the first new project Showtime has developed since Chris McCarthy added oversight of the company, which is preparing to make a sizable commitment to the series, which has been in the works for the past month.
Though deals have yet to close, the cable network is high on the project, which it believes has franchise potential. McCarthy has been a proponent of mining Showtime’s IP for potential franchises and is planning multiple offshoots of Dexter and Billions, while Ray Donovan could also be in line for some kind of continuation or spinoff.
Gattaca cost $36 million back in 1997 and only grossed 12.5 million at the domestic box office, though it has developed a sterling reputation over the past 25 years, and its original score by Michael Nyman remains fondly remembered by fans. I don’t know what direction Borten and the Homeland showrunners are planning to take this one, but if the series leads to more people checking out the film, I’m all for it.
