Though Gattaca was a hit at the box office in 1997, the dystopian thriller starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Jude Law has steadily grown into a cult classic over the years. A nice example of how quality, sometimes late, still dominates. Because it’s not just for us that “Lord Of War” creator Andrew Niccol’s directorial debut, with its profound questions about genetic engineering, dense atmosphere and plenty of high voltage, is one of the best sci-fi movies of all time – and all without a big thunderstorm of effects.
The status that the film only gradually acquired should eventually lead to a series adaptation in 2009 – which, however, did not materialize afterwards. In March 2023, we then reported that “Gattaca” should now become a series on American broadcaster Showtime more than 25 years after the film. But looking back now: Showtime has now surprisingly canceled the planned “Gattaca” series. The American trade journals report this unanimously.
Still, the project is not completely off the table. The production studio Sony Pictures Television is now trying to get the series from the “Homeland” team to another provider.
Shake-up during Showtime
However, “Gattaca” is just one of four new series Showtime has now dropped, even though they were actually already in active development. In addition to the sci-fi project, it also has Promising Young Woman creator Emerald Fennell’s anthology series Sweetness, the spy thriller Split, and the comedy series Seasoned about Homeland’s tumultuous relationship. star Mandy Patinkin and his wife Kathryn Grody caught.
The cancellation of the series projects is part of a reorganization and shift in strategy at Paramount-owned Showtime, which has brought us popular shows like Dexter, Homeland, and California in the past. The cable channel will now be fully integrated into the US streaming service Paramount+ to further strengthen its catalog and make it more competitive.
Prefer “Dexter” franchises over third-party series
In the course of this In the future, Showtime mainly wants to invest in content that really belongs to the broadcaster and that has not just been licensed by other production companies (As would have been the case with “Gattaca”). In this context, house hits such as “Billions” and “Dexter” will be expanded into larger franchises with several spin-off and sequel series.
It remains to be seen if we will ever see the “Gattaca” sequence elsewhere and then be transported back into the dark world of the movie of the same name, in which a large part of the world’s population is genetically optimized, while unchanged humans are considered imperfect outsiders waiting