Sumith Prasad
Apple TV+ has ordered ‘Murderbot,’ a science-fiction show based on Martha Wells’ book series ‘The Murderbot Diaries.’ Chris and Paul Weitz are set to helm the episodes of the project. The filming of the series will begin in Toronto, Ontario, in March 2024. The cast of the show is headlined by Alexander Skarsgård.
Set in a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, the show revolves around the Company, the organization that can approve planetary missions and supply the resources for the same. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids for their safety. On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied android — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself as Murderbot. Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. However, the scientists and their Murderbot set out to discover the truth when a neighboring mission goes awry.
Chris is going to helm the series after writing John David Washington-starrer ‘The Creator’ with Gareth Edwards. He also recently completed the production of ‘They Listen,’ a horror film he wrote and directed with Katherine Waterston, Riki Lindhome, and Keith Carradine headlining the cast. Chris co-wrote several popular projects, including Tom Hanks-starrer ‘Pinocchio,’ Kate Winslet and Idris Elba-starrer ‘The Mountain Between Us,’ and ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’ His recent credits as a director include ‘Operation Finale,’ starring Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley.
Paul, on the other hand, recently directed Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin-starrer ‘Moving On’ and Netflix’s Kevin Hart-starrer ‘Fatherhood.’ The Academy Award-nominated director also helmed ‘Bel Canto,’ starring Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe. Paul developed the Golden Globe-winning comedy-drama ‘Mozart in the Jungle’ for Amazon Prime Video with Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Alex Timbers. He directed twelve episodes of the show, including the series premiere and finale.
Wells’ book series debuted in 2017 with the first novel ‘All Systems Red.’ The book was followed by three more novels, ‘Artificial Condition,’ ‘Rogue Protocol,’ and ‘Exit Strategy,’ and a short story titled “Compulsory” in 2018. ‘Network Effect’ and ‘Fugitive Telemetry’ were published in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The latest novel in the series is ‘System Collapse,’ which came out this year. Two more short stories, “Obsolescence” (2019) and “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” (2021), form the science-fiction book series.
Apple Studios collaborates with Paramount Television, CBS Studios, the Weitz Brothers’ Depth of Field, and Phantom Four (Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’ and Hulu’s ‘Hellraiser’) for the show’s production. Toronto, the principal location of the project, will also host the shooting of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ season 6 next year.
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