CBS All Access has ordered a new adaptation to series of The Man Who Fell to Earth from Alex Kurtzman, according to TVLine. The series will be based on both Walter Tevi’s novel and the 1976 film with David Bowie. According to the official synopsis, the new adaptation follows “an alien who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.”
“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,” Kurtzman and Lumet stated. “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.”
“It also allows us to really explore where we are at this insane intersection between our humanity and our technology, and they seem to be merging more and more these days,” Kurtzman told TheWrap. “All the great sci-fi ends up predicting the future, if you look at all the things that really lasted, and Walter Tevis did that.”
According to Kurtzman, this adaptation will be more like a sequel, but with a different alien. “It’s a new alien, a new character, a whole new situation, but it definitely holds true to the spirit of what Tevis was doing in the novel.” For Lumet “Both the novel and the movie are very much a slice. They were a moment on a timeline. And here is the next moment in the timeline.”
Kurtzman also explained that he is not putting his other projects on hold, “The intention is to finish off this season of ‘Discovery’ and then go into production on ‘Man.’ I’m not overlapping too much there,” he said. “We’re very ahead of schedule because I think we saw this coming down the pike and we needed to get there in a way that was comfortable for both shows.”
Kurtzman will write and serve as showrunner together with Jenny Lumet (Star-Treck: Discovery). Kurtzman will also direct the series. Rola Bauer, Carl Beverly, Tim Halkin, Sarah Timberman, and Heather Kadin serve as executive producers and Aaron Baiers serves as co-executive producer.