David Bowie helped make director Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth a sci-fi classic.
Rialto Pictures/StudioCanal
Writer/producer Alex Kurtzman is a busy man. He’s deep into both Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Discovery, and his latest project will see him develop a TV adaptation of Walter Tevis’ sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell to Earth, another for CBS All Access. (Disclosure: CBS is the parent company of The Techy Trends.)
Most sci-fi fans may be familiar with The Man Who Fell to Earth from director Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 film adaptation starring David Bowie.
.@CBSAllAccess would like to welcome #TheManWhoFellToEarth
to its slate of original series! This story will follow an alien who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.— CBS TV Studios (@CBSTVStudios) August 1, 2019
In it Bowie plays the otherworldly, tragic hero Thomas Jerome Newton — a humanoid alien who has come to Earth to retrieve water for his drought-stricken home planet.
Kurtzman is developing the new series with fellow Star Trek: Discovery writer Jenny Lumet. The duo will co-write the episodes — which will be a continuation of the story not a reboot — with Kurtzman directing, according to Deadline on Thursday.
“Walter Tevis’ visionary novel gave us a Tech God Willy Wonka from another planet, brought to life by David Bowie’s legendary performance, that foretold Steve Jobs’ and Elon Musk’s impact on our world,” both Kurtzman and Lumet said in a joint statement.
“The series will imagine the next step in our evolution, seen through the eyes of an alien who must learn what it means to become human, even as he fights for the survival of his species.”
There’s no word yet on the new series’ release date or cast.
