Well, never say that Amazon Prime is lacking in ambitious shows for the streaming service. With the upcoming Lord of the Rings already set to be one of the biggest, most expensive in history, Amazon has now added another gigantic franchise right alongside it: Larry Niven’s Ringworld.
Collider spoke with writer/producer Akiva Goldsman who revealed that he’s working on a Ringworld TV series for Amazon. And if there was any doubt over the scope they have for this, they’ve brought in Game of Thrones and Thor: The Dark World‘s Alan Taylor as director.
Ringworld is a huge multimedia franchise that sprang from Larry Niven’s 1970 book. It’s set in the far-flung future and centers on Louis Wu, a lonely man who agrees to accompany a couple of companions to the mysterious Ringworld, a ring-like space location of unknown origin. Syfy has tried for years to get a show off the ground with no avail.
“I don’t know what Amazon is looking for, but they seem to like these larger objects that have scope and scale…,” said Goldsman. “I think that these big, comprehensive universes, there are very few of them still available, and I certainly think Known Space is one of them, for those of us who were Larry Niven fans in our high school days. Niven’s world, his universe, dare I say, is incredibly complex and nuanced, and ‘Ringworld’ has always been this entry point. Better minds than mine have tried to crack it, but hopefully we’ll do it this time.”
Amazon has a clear goal in mind and that is to grab the biggest properties they can find in hopes of winning the streaming wars. No word on when Ringworld will get moving, but given the amount of work that will need to go into this, expect it to be a while.
