‘Consider Phlebas’ Sci-Fi Series Based On Book In Works At Amazon From Charles Yu, Chloé Zhao & Plan B

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios is developing science fiction TV series Consider Phlebas. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Iain M Banks, the first in the late Swedish author’s classic ten-book Culture book series about an interstellar post-scarcity society.

Interior Chinatown creator Charles Yu is writing and executive producing. The potential series is also executive produced by Oscar winner Chloé Zhao through her production company Books of Shadows, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Entertainment as well as Adele Banks.

In Consider Phlebas, while war rages between the utopian Culture and the Idiran Empire, a Culture Ship AI “Mind” takes refuge on a forbidden planet. Both Horza, a shape-shifting mercenary working for the Idirans, and Balveda, a “Special Circumstances” Culture agent, have been tasked with retrieving it to tip the balance in a galaxy-spanning conflict. Consider Phlebas pits sentience against AI in an epic and bloody quest across the cosmos.

Amazon first teamed with Plan B to adapt Consider Phlebas six years ago as Prime Video was just getting into genre/sci-fi series in a major way with the mega rights deal for The Lord Of the Rings TV series. A couple of months after setting Consider Phlebas for development with Utopia creator Dennis Kelly as writer, the streamer rescued canceled Syfy drama The Expanse, which was followed by the green light for shows like The Wheel Of Time, The Boys, The Peripheral and Fallout. That initial Consider Phlebas TV incarnation ultimately didn’t go forward.

Yu most recently served as creator, showrunner and executive producer of the Hulu limited series Interior Chinatown, which was based on his National Book Award-winning novel of the same name. He has also written for other shows, including Westworld, Lodge 49 and Legion. Yu is the author of four books, including How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. He is repped by UTA and Ken Richman & Robby Koch at Hansen, Jacobson.

Zhao is directing and executive producing the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot pilot for Hulu, 20th Television and Searchlight TV where she has had a first-look deal. She most recently co-wrote and directed the upcoming movie Hamnet starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. Zhao is repped by CAA, Lichter Grossman and Ilene Feldman Mgmt.

Published in 1987, Consider Phlebas was Banks’ first sci-fi novel. His literary work was repped by Curtis Brown and Nelson Davis LLP.