Netflix recently acquired the rights to ‘Altered Carbon, ‘ a science fiction series based on the novel by Richard K. Morgan about a future where human minds and souls are digital and transferable. Netflix has ordered 10 episodes. It sounds kind of like a futuristic version of reincarnation.
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The story revolves around a former elite soldier, Takeshi Kovacs who is downloaded into the future, with the task of solving a murder. Which is, of course, puzzling since the aforementioned premise would suggest that death is virtually impossible.
“Kovacs rockets from the seediest hellholes on Earth, through virtual reality torture, into several gory firefights, and on to some exotic sexual escapades, “wrote Publisher’s Weekly “Morgan’s 25th-century Earth is convincing, while the questions he poses about how much Self is tied to body chemistry and how the rich believe themselves above the law are especially timely”. Fischer and Vanderbilt will co-executive produce Netflix’s Altered Carbon series alongside Kalogridis, Russel Friend, Garrett Lerner, and Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross. All four are from Skydance Television.
Meanwhile over at rival streaming service Amazon Video, the sci-fi category is led by alternative-history drama “The Man in the High Castle”, which will be followed by reboots of camp classic “Barbarella” and Star Trek-spoofing “Galaxy Quest”. And there’s no signs of slowing down.
Netflix this week vowed to spend US$6 billion on content this year, as it posted more strong financial and subscriber numbers. Kaloridis knows sci-fi, and Altered Carbon certainly sounds like enough of a hard-boiled cyberpunk story to make fans of things like Blade Runner, The Matrix, and every anime ever, very happy.
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Netflix has been producing a lot of genre series lately including Daredevil, Jessica Jones and the more mediocre Sense8.
