Syfy has ordered a new space thriller series called The Expanse without seeing a pilot first. The show will have 10 episodes to start. No word on when it will premiere.
Here are the details:
SYFY DIVES INTO THE EXPANSE WITH STRAIGHT-TO-SERIES GREENLIGHT FOR EPIC SPACE OPERA PRODUCED BY ALCON TELEVISION GROUP
HOUR-LONG SCI-FI DRAMA WRITTEN BY MARK FERGUS AND HAWK OSTBY IS BASED ON BEST-SELLING BOOK SERIES
NEW YORK – APRIL 11, 2014 – Syfy continues to ramp up its slate of ambitious and high quality scripted series with a straight-to-series greenlight for space-opera project The Expanse, it was announced today by Syfy President, Dave Howe. The 10-episode order is Syfy’s boldest new series commitment to date. The Expanse is produced by Alcon Television Group (ATG), a division of Alcon Entertainment, and marks the company’s first series order.
Academy Award-nominated screenwriting duo Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, Iron Man) wrote the pilot; they will continue to serve as writers, as well as executive producers.
A thriller set two hundred years in the future, The Expanse follows the case of a missing young woman who brings a hardened detective and a rogue ship’s captain together in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.
Said Howe, “‘The Expanse’ is epic in scale and scope and promises to be Syfy’s most ambitious series to date. Bringing this coveted book franchise to television with our partners at Alcon and the Sean Daniel Company is a giant win for Syfy, reinforcing our overall strategy to produce bold, provocative and compelling sci-fi fantasy stories. ‘The Expanse’ joins a killer line-up of high-concept, high quality series, along with recently announced original projects ‘Ascension,’ ’12 Monkeys,’ the renewal of ‘Helix,’ and the soon to premiere ‘Dominion.’”
ATG President Sharon Hall states, “‘The Expanse’ is an addictive, sophisticated, character-driven franchise and Mark and Hawk are the perfect people to steer it. Their script is a totally immersive and accessible sci-fi journey. We are thrilled to be in business with Syfy on this venture.”
Brown and Daniel state: “‘The Expanse’ is one of the most special pieces of material we’ve ever encountered and it has been our dream to bring it to life since the moment we read it. We couldn’t be more excited to be doing it with this team of all-stars – Mark, Hawk, and our partners at Alcon and Syfy.”
Alcon co-founders and co-CEO’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson will serve as executive producers with Sharon Hall. Alcon Television executive Ben Roberts will serve as co-producer. Ben Cook will serve as producer.
Sean Daniel (Graceland, The Mummy) and Jason Brown of the Sean Daniel Company developed the original pitch, with Fergus and Ostby, and will also executive produce.
Developed with the Sean Daniel Company as a direct-to-series project, Alcon is financing and executive producing the hour-long, ten episode series, based on the popular New York Times bestselling book series collectively known as The Expanse, written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey). Abraham and Franck will be show producers.
The multi-installment, best-selling book series is published in 17 countries, including China, France, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. One in the series, “Leviathan Wakes,” was nominated for a Hugo Award as well as a Locus Award, while “Caliban’s War” was nominated for a Locus Award.
As the sole studio, Alcon retains the much-in-demand worldwide distribution rights. Alcon is currently out to cast and directors.
What do you think? Does this sound like a worthwhile show?
By far one of the best new creations to grace SyFi for some time now, must read the book associated this new adventure in space, the first 10 episodes have been very well written and acted. Look forward to it’s future…….
Yes it sounds great. I’ve been waiting for a Star Trek type show. Keep up the good work
I have read the first 2 books and starting the 3rd. If they follow the books and produce a series with the production values used in Battlestar Galactica, They will indeed have a winner. If they cheap out like some of their made for syfy movies, forget it.
Oh hell yes
This show has great potential if done right, the books are truly awesome, plausible science fiction not everything goes sci fi.
For me this is DO or DIE for SyFy, the stuff they making lately is awful and seeing their logo is starting to mean DO NOT WATCH for me.
Looking forward to this, I just hope they do the books justice. This is one of my favourite book series for quite a while and it’s good to see SyFy getting back on track. Will be glued to the unveilings over the coming months.
Syfy needs to stop cancelling solid shows liek Warehouse 13 and Eureka for cliche space/future shows…I am looking at you Defiance. Graphics, aliens, and space suits do not make up for well written plot.
How about a big screen FarScape? Loved this series. A “living” Starship! How cool is that!?
At least its Sci-fi. SyFy in the past few years seemed hell bent on alienating its core audience by , well, not doing sci-fi. You know, future, spaceships, mindbending physics, all that good stuff.
Now we get “ghost hunters” and wrestling?
By the looks of it, perhaps SyFy might have realised it was on the wrong path. Lets hope they don’t screw it up.
Another ‘greatest conspiracy in human history’ series. Those I tend to pass on. What happened to just good sci-fi shows that didn’t deal with conspiracies, but story lines – FarScape, Battlestar, StarGate… I used to look forward to watching Sci Fi series before they became SyFy. It isn’t worth my time now.
Read the books. This will be worth the watch