Syfy will attempt to boost its genre lineup with pilot orders for The Machine, Happy! and The Haunted
In recent years, Syfy has spent its dramatic television endeavors pushing genre boundaries with both ambitiously sprawling event series and more insular low key efforts. Like any network, those endeavors have been hit or miss. While the breadth of some of the more ambitious misses has seen new shows somewhat scaled back, it appears that the NBCUniversal cable outlet will soon come to the table with an intriguing trio of new pilots.
Trades such as Deadline are reporting that Syfy has made pilot orders for three prospective shows with an adaptation of the 2013 android actioner The Machine; an adaptation of Grant Morrison’s gritty, seedy, noir-ish comic book mini-series Happy!; and ghostly thriller The Haunted. Each of the three pilot projects will be produced natively by NBCUniversal by way of their studio Universal Cable Productions.
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- The Machine adapts the 2013 sci-fi film written and directed by Caradog W. James in which Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow star Caity Lotz (pictured above) played a sexy cyborg soldier who goes rogue. The Syfy television pilot – set in a world shaped by the emergence of A.I. technology – will reportedly center on six characters whose stories are interwoven. Each of the characters will play a part in the fate of humanity in the coming war against the machines. The pilot will see the return of Caradog W. James as executive producer and producer John Giwa-Amu.
- Happy! adapts the 2012-2013 comic book miniseries written by the ever-prolific Grant Morrison. The series depicts a world of wanton murder and ribaldry, centering on the tortured Nick Sax, who has parlayed his former career as a corrupt ex-cop towards another career as a contract killer. However, Nick’s dark, self-loathing, chemically-addled existence gets a tone-clashing injection of optimism when he comes into the companionship of a blue-winged flying horse in the titular Happy. Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) will pen the pilot and serve as executive producer alongside original author Morrison.
- The Haunted appears to be the only original concept from this trio, depicting a more personal twist on the ghost genre. The story centers on four siblings who come together to deal with some serious family drama in the aftermath of their parents’ death. However, those unresolved personal issues start to take spiritual form when their reunion transitions into a potentially deadly encounter ghosts. The pilot is written by Noga Landau, who worked on the pilot for Syfy’s The Magicians and upcoming sci-fi film Tau. Author James Frey and Full Fathom Five’s Todd Cohen will serve as executive producers.
The move to order this trio of pilots is just the latest example of Syfy’s return to the practice of individual pilot development after straight-to-series orders yielded the aforementioned hit-or-miss habits. In fact, 2016 only saw a trio of new shows The Magicians, Wynonna Earp and Hunters with the secret alien invasion series Hunters being the only one from that class to meet the dreaded chopping block, minimizing losses.
While they’ve churned out their share of duds, Syfy continues to find exciting new ideas for original content; something evidenced by the zany, seemingly-generic, but surprisingly poignant take on the zombie genre Z Nation, which actually returns with its expectations-defying third season premiere on September 16 (tonight).