Children of Men, television series

David Eick (of Battlestar Galactica fame) is drafting a pilot script for a television series based on P. D. James‘ 1992 novel The Children of Men. I’ve gotten the impression it will take from the book rather than the film, since Alfonso Cuarón’s adaptation took the book’s premise in his own direction.

Ian Spelling from SCI FI Wire reports from an 18 March presentation, Eick said of the project: “It’s really taking root more in the origins of the novels in that it will focus on the cultural movement in which young people become the society’s utter focus. Much like our culture, whenever Lindsay Lohan does something [and] it becomes the headline of every news show, it’s about how, when you don’t have a responsibility to the next generation and you’re free to do whatever you want, where do you draw the line?”

Nevertheless, its production will no doubt follow Cuarón’s attention to the contemporary.

‘Eick added that Children of Men will question how society defines responsibility, freedom and a sense of values when it doesn’t necessarily believe humans will survive as a species. “So it’s a very compelling, I think, human question that science fiction has always explored extremely provocatively,” he said. “It’s not really a war show like the movie was. It’s more an exploration of that issue.”‘