Westworld showrunners developing William Gibson adaptation for Amazon

By Sam Barsanti | April 17, 2018 | 11:33pm

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The second season of HBO’s twisty sci-fi drama Westworld is just about to premiere, but showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan aren’t just sitting back and wasting everyone’s time with internet pranks. They’re already developing another twisty sci-fi drama, with Variety reporting that they’re working on a script for an adaptation of William Gibson’s The Peripheral. The project hasn’t been picked up by Amazon yet, but it is reportedly “being eyed for a straight-to-series order,” so that’s most likely what will happen if Nolan and Joy can suitably impress Amazon Studios.

Gibson’s original book takes place in the near-future and focuses on Flynne Fisher, a woman who takes her brother’s place working security for what appears to be an even more futuristic virtual reality world full of drones and gangsters. As Variety puts it, she “discovers a hidden connection to a very different reality—and the dark future of her own,” hinting that there’s more going on here than a fancy VR thing.