Red Mars coming to TV

Since I'm currently reading Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent 1992 novel of Martian colonisation, Red Mars, I'm particularly pleased to read in the Hollywood Reporter this morning that AMC are planning to adapt it for television.

The book, which details at some length the bureaucractic and technical hurdles involved in setting up bases and eventually towns and cities on the fourth rock from the sun, won the nebula award for its author, and the TV version will be helmed by Jonathan Hensleigh, who directed The Punisher in 2004 and Welcome To The Jungle this year.

Red Mars is a character-driven piece that doesn't skimp on the technical hurdles and geeky details, and it will certainly require a major SFX effort to bring to life in any meaningful way, an ambitious project for a company already taking on The Prisoner and which is earning a track record for credible TV sci-fi.

Hensleigh also wrote Die Hard With A Vengeance,  The Saint, and Jumanji, and was a producer on Con Air and Armageddon.

Hollywood reporter