Once pondered by Ridley Scott and then-muse Leonardo DiCaprio for the big screen, the latest adaptation of Aldous Huxley's classic science fiction tale Brave New World has been in development for TV for a while instead. Current bosses David Wiener. Brian Taylor (of Crank co-directing fame) and comicbook veteran Grant Morrison have found one of the key cast members, with Alden Ehrenreich on to play John.
Huxley's tome, written in 1931 and published in 1932, is set roughly 500 years in the future (AD 2540) where humans are artificially bred into castes, which determine their intelligence, height and social prospects. They are dependent on a drug called Soma and sexually promiscuous, although love and family are socially taboo.
The novel's protagonist, Bernard, is an Alpha Plus caste member with an inferiority complex who develops an inappropriate fixation on Beta Plus caste member Lenina. He tries to impress her on a trip to the Savage reservation where people still live normally, instead finding John, the natural-born son of an Alpha once exiled there and returning him to their civilisation as a celebrity. Cue massive societal disruption as people in New London and beyond start to question the culture they previously accepted.
Originally developed at the US SyFy Channel, this will now come from the USA Network, backed by Amblin Television. Owen Harris is on board to direct the first episode, while Wiener is the showrunner.
Ehrenreich, last seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story, will make this as his next job.
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