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Amazon, Plan B adapt Iain Banks

Amazon Studios has acquired the rights to adapt Iain Banks’ sci-fi novel Consider Phlebas as a drama series.

Sharon Tal Yguado

Consider Phlebas is the first novel from Scot Banks’ (who wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks) Culture series, a collection of works centred on a fictional interstellar utopian society. The Amazon deal marks the first time one of his sci-fi stories has been picked up for TV adaptation.

The series, which will debut exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video service, is being produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and written by Dennis Kelly (Utopia). The Estate of Iain Banks will serve as an exec producer on the show, with the author having passed away in 2013.

Consider Phlebas focuses on a rogue agent planted by the Idirans, a race intent on world domination.

Sharon Tal Yguado, head of scripted series at Amazon Studios, said the firm was honoured to be adapting the work, adding:“For years Hollywood has been trying to bring this utopian society to life on the screen.”

The capture of Banks’ work marks the second significant UK literary purchase Amazon has acquired, following the US$250m it shelled out for the TV rights for JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy last November.

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