Netflix has teased details of its latest TV show which is a noir sci-fi series called Altered Carbon. The new show is based on the quintessential 2002 cyber punk novel with the same title. A hot new trailer announced the release date which is February 2nd 2018. Here’s what we know so far about Altered Carbon.
The premise of the show, which is set 300 years from now long into the future, is that death as we knew it no longer has meaning. Human consciousness can now be downloaded onto a memory card or a “stack” and subsequently uploaded into a fresh new body or a “sleeve”. Death has been reduced to a mere inconvenience as the filthy rich regularly update their mortal bodies by implanting their memories and digitized selves into new vessels.
The streaming giant’s latest show will follow the fortunes a Takeshi Kovacs a solider who is the remaining survivor of a group of space warrior. Theses interstellar combatants were defeated in a failed uprising against the new order. Fans of The Wolverine will be pleased to see Will Yun Lee play Kovacs and also Joel Kinnaman from Suicide Squad. Confused? Bodies are merely clothes remember. Kovac’s mind has been incarcerated “on ice” for decades until he is brought back by rich man Laurens Bancroft. Kovacs is digitally loaded into the body of a disgraced police officer.
Bancroft, played by English actor James Purefoy offers Kovacs a deal. Kovacs is enlisted to solve a murder in return for his life. The twist? He’s to solve the murder of Bancroft himself. The murder was ruled suicide by the police so it falls to Kovacs to undercover the truth As Kovacs wades deeper into his murder investigation he begins to understand that his own past may hold relevance.
Richard K Morgan’s cult science fiction novel on which the show is based was published in 2002 to critical acclaim. Talks rumbled previously on efforts to make a feature film based on the novel but that didn’t bear fruit. Fans of the book and the genre will be excited to see his world brought to the small screen. Morgan followed Altered Carbon with two sequels so there’s plenty of material for Netflix to work with into the future.
The Netflix teaser opens with an intriguing in-universe clip showcasing Psychasec, which is the company charged with of “sleeving” humans. The slick ad with its voice-over offering discerning clients “an unparalleled pedigree of human sleeves” is juxtaposed with a gritty violent reality. The latest trailer includes a release date announcement and hints at the sort of philosophical and ethical dilemmas which beat at the heart of great sci-fi. A first glimpse at the dystopian world promises fantastic visuals with exhilarating neon lighting and electrifying action. In it, Kinnaman’s voices the central idea for the new show that “The danger of living too many times: you forget to fear death.”
The show’s showrunner and executive producer is producer/screen-writing heavyweight Laeta Kalogridis, who co-wrote Terminator Genisys and Avatar. Netflix have secured the directing talents of director Miguel Sapochnik, for the pilot. Game of Thrones fans will know Sapochnick as the director of the epic episode ‘Battle of the Bastards’.
The Skydance Television series is available to stream on Netflix from the 2nd February 2018 and promises to be sci-fi fans latest binge watch. Check out the official trailer.
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