Syfy is Adapting 3001: The Final Odyssey Miniseries for Cable

Brittany Vincent

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Oct 1, 2014
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Syfy is Adapting 3001: The Final Odyssey Miniseries for Cable



Ridley Scott will produce a ready-for-cable miniseries following Arthur C. Clarke's final chapter in the 2001: A Space Odyssey on Syfy.

The next chapter in one of the most well-known and beloved stories in sci-fi history is coming to fruition with the help of Syfy. The network plans to adapt Arthur C. Clarke's novel 3001: The Final Odyssey into a miniseries helmed by Ridley Scott as its executive producer.

Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. The very same channel that brings us cheesy monster flicks and some decidedly awful science fiction monstrosities is daring to bring additional slices of the legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey to cable? Sounds bizarre, but with Ridley Scott at the helm, it just might be worth checking out. Stuart Beattie (Collateral, Pirates of the Caribbean) is on tap to pen the adaptation itself and acting as the executive producer.

The official rundown goes a little something like this: "An epic story of a man lost in time, Arthur C. Clarke's final Odyssey book resolves the tale that was begun in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Beginning with the discovery of Frank Poole's frozen body, floating in space, 3001: The Final Odyssey offers an extraordinary range of complex characters with conflicting agendas, stunning visuals, and dark thematic meditations on the final fate of all Humankind."

It's heady stuff to be sure, but how would that sort of content work with Syfy? The themes and ideas in the original film and 2010: The Year We Make Contact were more easily adaptable to film, but perhaps it's time the final chapter is breached. It has the blessing of both Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's estates, and Ridley Scott and Syfy President Dave Howe are clearly excited to get started on the project.

"Arthur C. Clarke is the father of modern science fiction," gushed Howe. "We couldn't be more excited to be working with Scott Free and Warner Horizon Television to bring to the screen, for the very first time, the final chapter of this extraordinary masterpiece."

There's no date yet as to when we might be able to expect to see this miniseries, but the future does hold additional work from Clarke himself, with Syfy adapting another of his novels, Childhood's End, in the near future. The future could look very bright for science fiction cable television indeed.

Source: Entertainment Weekly [http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/11/03/syfy-3001/]

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Thaluikhain

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So...they are going to skip 2101? I can see why...

EDIT: Or was it 2061? The really boring third one.
 

Olas

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Why would anybody want to adapt that boring waste of time? Sorry to any possible fans, but I really felt let down by 3001. Not only does it not build on the original novels much at all, but it largely undermines them and alters many remarkable aspects of them to be mundane. It's basically just a tour of Clarke's vision for the world a millennium from now. Almost nothing interesting happens in the plot until the very end, and even then it's pretty anticlimactic.
 

FalloutJack

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Go to hell, Syfy. You're dead to me. Also, you're just kind of dead and stale in general. This will not be cool.
 

crimson5pheonix

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On the one hand, it's Ridley Scott and he knows what he's doing. On the other hand, it's on Syfy, which may as well be an admission to horrid quality. I just don't know...
 

Shiftygiant

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Awesome, 3001 is getting recognition... wait, hold on, Ridley Scott, Syfy, people claiming to be respecting the memory of the creator on the announcement? My, isn't that the 'triangle of power'?

Could be good, even with Scott's track record of recent films being somewhat naff, the man knows his stuff, but Syfy? That's the snag in my mind, given their habit of low budget dross.
 

Dalisclock

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I read 3001 back in the day....and it was one of the reasons I began to feel that Clarke was slipping and needed to retire from writing. He's written some good stuff in his career but 3001 was a long, long way from his good stuff.

Somehow it seems fitting that SyFy is going to do this. If they mess up, nobody will care and nothing of value will be lost.
 

Zontar

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Darn, and here I was hoping for 2061. Oh well, I can always rewatch 2010 again while wondering how 2001 gets so much praise from what is really just good cinematography coupled with a great score that turned out to be not the best work of anyone involved.
 

Kahani

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Olas said:
It's basically just a tour of Clarke's vision for the world a millennium from now. Almost nothing interesting happens in the plot until the very end, and even then it's pretty anticlimactic.
Yeah, very much this. 3001 was more of an essay than a novel. It's a bit of speculation about how technology and society might change over the next thousand years, but without any real plot or characters to tie it all together. The only time it comes close to having any sort of story is when it decides to crap all over the whole point of the previous books and throw continuity out entirely. Oddly enough, the sequels to Rendezvous With Rama did almost exactly the same during the same time frame. The end of the '80s was really not a good time for Clarke.

That said, while 3001 wasn't a great book, I'm not sure it was so bad as to deserve SyFy treatment.
 

hermes

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Zontar said:
Darn, and here I was hoping for 2061. Oh well, I can always rewatch 2010 again while wondering how 2001 gets so much praise from what is really just good cinematography coupled with a great score that turned out to be not the best work of anyone involved.
One word: Kubrick. The guy is so critically praised that even the worst of his work (the dull "Eyes wide shut") is considered a masterpiece by many...
I am more interested in the possibility of Childhood's End being adapted. 3001 was possibly the worst in the series (I only doubt because 2061 was just as dull and even less memorable), and a departure for Clark. Written 30 years after the first one, it felt more in line with fantasy than any other novel in the series. Childhood's End, on the other hand, is brilliant and I support any effort to bring it to mainstream.
 

small

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wonder if syfy will also be giving away doses of LSD with each broadcast as well
 

Darks63

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ritchards said:
No love for 2061?
Not alot happens in that one except the Chinese space crew getting eaten by a sea monster(one of Europa's new life forms) while refueling their H2O on the icy surface.
 

Genocidicles

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Parshooter said:
Hope this goes better than when they did Dune.
The only thing that let down their Dune adaptations was the spectacularly low budget and downright strange costume decisions. I mean matte backgrounds in the year 2000? Sardaukar wearing giant berets? Christ.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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I'd rather have Ridley Scott and Syfy team up to redo Prometheus. Production values might drop, but at least the cheesy plot full of idiot balls [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotBall] would be acceptable. Either that or he could make a Blade Runner/Alien crossover parody. Those are the only things I can see working on the Syfy channel.

It would be better if he got a serious production company to help him remake 2001, with hope of making the other 3 films as well. I liked Kubrick's 2001 in all its acid trip HAL 9000 glory, but many don't like the slower pacing and abrupt tone shift at the end. Scott could have made a really good 2001 (if he wouldn't greenlight horrible scripts).
 

tce11

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3001 is definitely not very good compared to Clarke's earlier work, and especially when compared to the first 2 books in the series, but I think it could make for a pretty fun TV miniseries. And it'll totally be worth it to see GENETICALLY ENGINEERED DINOSAUR SERVANTS GARDENING IN BIO-DOMES ON THE BLOODY MOON! Yes, that is an actual thing that happens in that book.
 

NeutralDrow

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I'll join the chorus of "wait, they're skipping 2061?" I liked that one. My second-favorite after 2010.

...wait, which was the one where HAL becomes a star child?
 

Product Placement

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Darks63 said:
ritchards said:
No love for 2061?
Not alot happens in that one except the Chinese space crew getting eaten by a sea monster(one of Europa's new life forms) while refueling their H2O on the icy surface.
No, that was 2010. 2061 is about a mountain made out of diamond, that was sticking out of the ocean of Europa.
NeutralDrow said:
I'll join the chorus of "wait, they're skipping 2061?" I liked that one. My second-favorite after 2010.

...wait, which was the one where HAL becomes a star child?
Again, that was 2010.