I’ve been getting questions on a regular basis about a TV series or movie for the Bobiverse. Finally, I can come clean. I’ve signed an option deal, which might end up being a movie, or a Netflix series, or a TV series, or honestly, nothing. It’s an “option” deal, so they still have to find a producer to take it on. Option deals expire.
(This is me trying to be an adult while dancing around like a crazy person)
Anyway, here’s the announcement in Publisher’s Marketplace:
Dennis Taylor’s WE ARE LEGION (WE ARE BOB), the first in the Bob Universe series, optioned to Endeavor Content, by Joel Gotler at Intellectual Property Group, on behalf of The Ethan Ellenberg Agency.
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Fingers crossed that this leads somewhere!!
That’s fantastic news! I’d watch in a heartbeat. From the first chapter of the first book to the last chapter of the third I was totally hooked. Finished all three in around a week which is unheard of for me lol. Love them all :0)
This is great news, congrats! Personally I hope for a series, so that the bobiverse gets the treatment it deserves.
Are you able/contractually allowed to say anything regarding how much creative control you’d get with a movie/series at this point, or is that something that’s part of a later final contract deal?… Hopefully a lot š
I agree. Series
Hopefully this will lead to a sequel? Hint Hint, Nudge Nudge KnowwhatImean?
I’d hope for a series so that vast chunks of the story don’t go missing. I’ve always thought that Seth McFarlane(spelling?) would be a great choice for playing Bob.
I couldnāt agree more
I’m always leery of watching a movie based on a book. Look at what they did with “Ready Player One”, and that was with the help of the author. I suspect he had little to no experience dealing with hollywood. I was very impressed with “Altered Carbon” on Netflix. the changes they made were because the original didn’t translate well to the screen, and they tried to keep the flavor. The hotel is an excellent example. Poe works so very well on the screen. I think a series would work much, much better for the bobiverse, if possible.
Netflix has shown they like realism in their sci-fi. There is no man-in-rubber-suit or greenscreen feel to “Lost in Space”. They have shown that they can really make a series work.
As a fan of your series, I would rather forgo the movie experience totally rather than watch something that was substantially less than the original, if the choice was watch a watered down version or watch it not at all. I don’t mind, and even enjoy, a script that has been changed from the original because i realize it is hard to move the picture in your head to the picture on the screen. Douglas Adams proved that you can make several different versions of the same story and it still entertains.
Basically, it boils down to ” I think most of your fans would rather you stand firm for your story to follow your vision, and have the studio back out, if the alternative was to watch something that removed the best parts of the story and made it just another hack sci-fi action flick.”
Honestly, “Ready Player One” just gutted the book. A series would have been so much better, you could let the story unfold like it should instead of cramming the exciting parts in 2 hours with lukewarm storyline written to string them together.
It is getting harder to find Sci-Fi that doesn’t involve near porn levels of romance, or magic creeping in, or just a poor copy of a popular story. Your Bobiverse is really refreshing and I look forward to reading many more stories.
Books are different from movies. As long as you keep comparing you will not be happy.
Sir…this is huge…Please please please do your best to make sure the treatment does not lose sight of the important questions you are asking about the future of humanity…don’t let it be a dumb space opera…we need thoughtful discussion if we are …to be legion
An animated anime looking series on Netflix would be the bomb.
I was thinking the very same thing. Or even, y’know, an actual anime … with a manga tie in.
By the way, I failed to congratulate you on the option on your series! And as for earlier comments on a possible Bob actor, I wish ray porter could do it. He is already the voice of Bob for audiobook listeners. He makes Bob live in our minds, I wish he could do it on the screen.
I would subscribe to whatever platform this would carry. No questions asked.
Congratulations! I hope for two things. First, that Bobverse gets picked up. Second, that you retain creative rights and have say in the creation and ongoing production of whatever is made.
Congrats!
I’ll watch what ever they give me.
Would hope for a netflix series (mini?) 1 season per book, with how ever many episodes it takes to tell the story correctly. (6-13?) could be animated or live /cgi action
WooHoo!
(joking) I’m available to play homer, Riker, Loki or Thor , or maybe archimedes ( i have the right ears for that role)
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I’m hoping Netflix series. This is not movie material… This is waaaaay too complex and extensive for that. We need a 25 episode season just to get through all this material.
I’m super excited.
If you do, make it a Netflix TV series, it will much better capture the essence of the book. I know Ready Player One movie was bad and nothing compared to the book because there was not enough time.
I just found this series on Audible, and did a web search hoping to find this news.
Thank you.
Considering success on audible platform, your reps should totally pitch to Amazon. They’re always looking for original IP, and could be successful synergy between books, audiobook, and video tie in.
Dennis, I loved the Bobiverse series. I listened to all three in audiobook format. Several time I thought, this is the perfect premis for a TV series. Perhaps it could be kicked off with a movie. Like the van (mumble) probes, the series would expand and go on forever.
Keep writing.
Scott
Awesome man– Absolutely loved this series! Fingers crossed š
Like everyone else, I’m hoping for the best. It always amazes me when Hollywood takes a great book and turns it into a crap movie or TV series, when all they had to do was faithfully follow the book(s). Sometimes they get it right (e.g., LOTR, Harry Potter, The Martian, Outlander), but all too often they don’t and there’s nothing the author can do about it. Either the author has signed away all intellectual rights, or the author has picked a poor partner simply because the choices were limited. We shall see.
That would be awesome
I pray for a series, the bobiverse is something very special to me and I really hope they do it justice by telling it all.
Please let make this happen
I mentioned how amazing it would be for ray porter to be able to play bob in a “we are bob” series or movie. I just looked him up on imdb. He could do it! He isn’t exactly what I pictured for Bob, but i have to say that the beard would make him perfect for Riker. I cold easily accept him as Bob. I’m not trying to start any movement or anything; I’m just saying it would be so perfect if Ray could play bob.
Imdb picture of ray. He is the dude with the beard.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDU3MDkzNDQ5NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjQxMjM0MjE@._V1_.jpg
Can we have hourly updates?
# Following, we need more updates.
Dennis, In the summer of 2017, I talked with Ethan Ellenberg about acquiring the TV/Film rights for We Are Legion. Ethan wisely turned me down and found a better option in California. However, during that time period, I wrote a script for a Bobiverse series pilot.
I don’t know your involvement with option deal with Endeavor, but if you are working on a script and want an alternate perspective, I would be happy to help.
Best,
Joe
P.S. My brief bona fides is a Masters in writing and a script that went through he PAGE Int. film competition.
Author
I have as little to do with the business end of things as possible, and will always defer to my agent. I have no idea how scripts get accepted or approved or reviewed or whatever. You should talk to Ethan about that.
Dennis, Thanks for letting me know and getting back to me. I appreciate that.
Good luck,
Joe
Happy to hear it. Though I imagine do to the ummm anthology nature? of the narrative, that I am legion will be fairly difficult to adapt with out major changes. Not to mention the “uniqueness” of the main character/characters. Crossing my fingers for the best.
I just discovered your book on tape through audible and I must say I’m very impressed! This is the most enjoyable book I’ve read/listened to in ages. Thank you for an enjoyable and clever read!
Oh I hope that nextflix picks this up. They will do a fabulous job of bringing the book to life and doing it justice. Congratulations!!!
I’ve always pictured OG Bob as Jason Bateman.
I just hope whoever picks this up turns it into a series, not a movie. Even Spielberg couldn’t fit Ready Player One into a movie. Meanwhile SciFi is doing amazing things with The Expanse series, which I thought was meh.
I am so excited to find out there could be a chance to see the Bobiverse in screen! I agree with most everyone that a Netflix series makes the most sense. I’ve always thought of Tom Hanks as being a perfect Bob. I’m looking forward to the next book!
It’s got to be maybe not of a full-fledged TV show but at least a 6-10 Episode per season Per book the movie would rush through the story too quickly missing out on important details Butchering major sections of the story like what happened to ready player one. And leads over to the I read the book elitists the expands has done a good job of it but because the story is so long that and having trouble finding people to keep the story going. Your story is a simple three short seasons.
Endeavor mentions virtual reality/augmented reality in their portfolio, and have a recent tangential relationship with Epic games. Does that option deal include the possibility of interactive media, like games or vr/ar?
I agree with the series to keep the value of the story. There are only a few exceptions where the series/movies are better than the book, in my opinion āthe expanseā and āgame of thronesā are good examples of that. I assume you donāt want to make the whole thing yourself and with the audiobooks it turned out really well letting audible handle it. But I think audible knows what they are doing and itās their business to supplement the content. There are so many examples where hollywood has a different audience in mind than the ppl reading your book. I hope the result will be something you would like, thats good enough for me.
And also agree with the hourly updates! š
I lived in LA CA doing 3D animation a while ago. Option are common, but options with an Exec. Producer with three films is a different matter. From IMDB Joel Gotler is an Exec. Producer who knows how to make money on 3D animated and mixed live-action / CGI films.
There are a lot of books, probably the majority of them, that could convert well to a movie or TV series. Not many can or do convert well to a game. The Bobiverse would seem to lend itself exquisitely to a game, Outland too, but unless you bring the other uploads into the mix, singularity trap, not so much.
SPOILER ALERT!
Bobiverse, you have built into the story, your research center for new technologies at the Bill’s Skunkworks, strategy for space battles and real estate control using min/max, denial of resources, the timeline for building colony ships vs. printers, all concepts that would fit well into a game, and if done well, it could almost be made to look like the book was written from a play through the game. As in many games, at the beginning you only control one unit or have one place you can go or do, but then once you reach a point in the game, ie once skut (spelling? hay, I read the audio book) communications come online, you can control more than one star system. All these concepts / constraints that are included in many games, but have no logical basis for in the game other that makes the game more playable, are all written into the story line of the game.
Outland, in the beginning you have some amount of time to go to the new world to collect gold to bring back to the old world to buy things to bring to the new world to set up a base, then the volcano errupts, and you can’t go back to old world any more; you have to live off of what you have collected or can make. Defending this new base from the locals ie. dinosaurs, collecting resources, rebuilding society, all part of a great game, but that is only the beginning of a game, or it is a very short game.
Director got to be Edgar Wright, it feels like the bobiverse needs the best cinematography.
I mean I’m probably the only one to say Matt Bomer would be a great Bob based of his character Neal Caffrey on ‘White Collar’, snarky, fun and most importantly a do everything savant. instead of classical art and heists It’s Sci-fi and Scientific Development.
But they could cast Tommy Wiseau and it’d still be great if you hold at least some creative control. (Don’t want another world war Z esque movie adaptation)
what ever happens I wish you luck!
Omg omg omg I just saw this I loved all three have listened to each box about ever 2 months or so. Please release more, take my money!!!!!
Please please please please don’t let it be the next “Altered Carbon”. I loved that book, and Netflix destroyed it making it into a series. I would cry for a week if they did that to poor Bob!
I vote for TV series and Matt Damon for Bob!
I’m coming to your blog after finishing the first three books in the last two weeks and having recently started Heaven’s River. I’m definitely a fan!
The first thing I thought after finishing the first book was that this story HAS to be a TV show or movie. Or both. It’s a fantastic story and I can only imagine how wonderful it would turn out with a visionary director at the helm. I really do hope it is picked up by somebody.
First off, I’m 3/4 of the way through Heaven’s river (audible), after having first re-listened to the first three books as it’s been over a year. The re-read was just wonderful, and gave me a fresh feel going into the new book.
I have been thoroughly enjoying Heaven’s river. Thank you so much for a deep an honest sequel.
My thoughts on a movie/Tv series is I would HOPE for a TV series/miniseries. I don’t think a movie would to it justice. We’d end up with something like the Ready Player One movie which, while the movie itself is entertaining, it in no way captures the fullness of the book. Even just the first book is too much to fit into a single movie.
I also have my doubts how this will look. So much of your novels involve Bobs talking to themselves, which doesn’t lend itself to the small or silver screen format. Then again The Martian was written in a similar way, and the movie did it justice (well, expect for that stupid Ironman thing at the end). With the right screenplay writer and director… hmmm.
I listened to We are Legion (We are Bob) a while ago on Audible and was hooked.
So I had to listen to For We Are Many and was double hooked.
Then I listened to All These Worlds and was triple hooked.
I am currently half way through listening to Heaven’s River, quadruple hooked.
So a TV Series would be the icing on the cake.
Are there plans for a quintuple hooked book being written?
Ray Porter reads the books on Audible very eloquently, so I wonder how he feels about acting all the Bob parts?
Many thanks for such a great set of Novels.
Oh I do hope they cast well. Iām thinking Bob could be KARAN SONI
He is the person in my head when I read and then re read then listen again to the Bob books. He is the best actor in my humble British opinion. Please say theyāll ask him?
I hope the virtual reality will be created by someone too!
Hey Dennis! Just finished the first book and I loved it right from the beginning. Thank you so much!
Any updates on the series adaptation or has that ship sailed?
Best wishes!
Iām so thrilled for you and all of us. Just finished not til we are lost- please donāt let this be the last story – I love all your writings I love the references I am 64 and a half and have read almostall the old sci fi you did. This is is my fave period in my life for stories. Tv series movie whatever please donāt stop writing. I hope Bob and Theresa get together someday and you never stop writing! Thankyou for these books this new Star Trek level story telling going forward. I canāt wait Iām in the UK so itās all a bit delayed. Please consider Nabhaan Rizwan for Bob. Or Kayan Novak or Karan Soni.
Kayvan is a bit older but he scrubs up young. Iām off the paint Bobiverse stuff now. Iām an artist. Sort of abstract but you can see what everything is. So Iām obsessed with megastructures right now- topopolis in particular as heaven river is the most delicious story. Thankyou. Mr Dennis E Taylor -Chenny Langwell is my fb