Studio Gunpowder & Sky’s Dust science fiction label said it is developing Moreau, a TV series based on H.G. Wells’ classic novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.
Zack Stentz, who worked on X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has been signed to write the series.
Moreau focuses on world-renowned scientist Dr. Jessica Moreau, whose pioneering work in genetic engineering catches the eye of a billionaire willing to stop at nothing to reach the next step of human evolution.
“Zack took a time-honored classic and brought it into the 21st century,” said Eric Bromberg, senior VP at Gunpowder & Sky. “Together, we’re creating a story that’s scarily befitting of today’s world, filled with seemingly limitless, and oftentimes alarming, scientific advancements. Frankenstein and Doudna have nothing on Jessica Moreau.”
Stentz is repped by Circle of Confusion, a leading management and production company that partnered with Gunpowder & Sky in April to develop and produce feature films and series that are sourced from writers, directors and producers who have had their work released on Dust or Alter, Gunpowder & Sky’s sci-fi and horror brands, respectively.
"The double helix wasn’t even a twinkle in Watson & Crick’s eye when H.G. Wells first wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau, but his 1896 novel proved astonishingly prescient about how unlocking the secrets of DNA would open the door to humanity playing God with the natural world in strange and frightening ways,” said Stentz.
“And now, in the shadow of the CRISPR revolution, it felt like the perfect time to revisit Moreau and bring it into our own 21st Century world of transgenic animals, designer babies and other scientific advances Wells never could have dreamed of, Stentz said. “I'm delighted to be working with Eric, Geoff & the Gunpowder & Sky team to welcome a whole new generation to the good doctor's terrifying island.”
