Emmy Award-winning duo Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa are heading back to Showtime with a series based on the 1997 Ethan Hawke sci-fi classic Gattaca. The show, penned by Gordon and Gansa with Craig Borten, is billed as a sequel series taking place a generation after the events of the original film. Sony Pictures Television is currently finalizing the deal.
Written and directed by Andrew Niccol and featuring Hawke alongside Uma Thurman, Gattaca wowed critics during its release for its portrayal of a dystopian society where discrimination was manufactured to perfection thanks to Eugenics. Instead of race, gender, sexuality, or other factors, society is separated by the Invalids and Valids. The Valids are people who are born through a selective process to ensure only the most desirable traits move on while Invalids are born naturally and thus are forced into menial jobs and face constant derision. The film saw Hawke play an Invalid named Vincent Freeman who goes through meticulous methods to hide his status and earn a job at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. Through the underdog Vincent and the man he's impersonating, Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), we see how society both attempts to push Invalids down while also putting pressure on Valids to be perfect. The film even earned an Oscar nomination for its art direction.
Gordon and Gansa will also executive produce with Glenn Gellar, who runs their Sony Pictures Television-based banner. They've managed to land one former member of the Gattaca team to join them in Danny DeVito. DeVito previously worked as a producer alongside Niccol on the film.
Gordon, Gansa, and Showtime Make a Great Team for Gattaca
Gordon and Gansa will be back in familiar territory with Gattaca at Showtime. They previously created Homeland, one of Showtime's biggest series that raked in an impressive eight Emmys over the course of its run. That included two for Gordon and Gansa as well as a pair for series star Claire Danes and a boatload of other nominations. Before that, the pair also had credits as producers on the legendary Fox crime thriller 24 as well as The X-Files, Entourage, and Maximum Bob among other things. More recently, they've found success with their own show at Fox in the anthology series Accused which has become a breakout hit boasting a stacked cast and hefty ratings.
Their partner Borten, meanwhile, previously threatened for Oscar gold as a co-writer on Dallas Buyers Club with Melissa Wallack. His credits have been far fewer recently, however, with his most recent writing credit being Netflix's Sergio.
Stay tuned here at Collider for more on Gordon and Gansa's Gattaca series. Check out the trailer for the original film below.