Producers IM Global are heading into highbrow country, having announced a small screen adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.
The dense novel, published in 1963, was a conspiracy tale and satire about the atomic age, featuring send ups of politics and organized religion (via feet-based belief system “Bokononism”). It also featured the wranglings over a substance called “ice-nine”, a radical new type of water.
Vonnegut earned a Master’s degree in anthropology nearly a decade later on the strength of the work, so it’s safe to say whoever transfers it to TV is going to have a challenge making it accessible to the casual viewer. Before IM Global picked up the baton the property was circled by Appian Way Productions, better known as Leonard DiCaprio’s company.
It’s an ambitious move by the team, in a climate where more populist forms of the sci-fi/fantasy genre are prevalent (as audiences flock to the slam-bang spectacle of Marvel and DC). Over at SyFy they’re developing a miniseries of Arthur C. Clarke’s 3001, so Cat’s Cradle should be in good company by the time it gets to air.
Source: Variety
