“Nightflyers is a haunted house story on a starship,” George R.R. Martin says in Syfy’s first behind-the-scenes teaser for its adaptation of his sci-fi/horror novella. “It’s Psycho in space.” Though the video is only a minute long, it’s filled with shots both behind and in front of the camera: the ambitious set and special effects that go into pulling this eerie story out of Martin’s mind, as well as a hint of the gory terrors befalling the crew of the Nightflyer.
Buy the Book
Nightflyers & Other Stories
The official synopsis, from Syfy:
Nightflyers follows eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath who embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system aboard the Nightflyer—a ship with a small tightknit crew and a reclusive captain—in the hope of making contact with alien life. But when terrifying and violent events begin to take place they start to question each other—and surviving the journey proves harder than anyone thought.
From the Tor Books edition of Nightflyers, out now:
But another enigma is the Nightflyer itself, a cybernetic wonder with an elusive captain no one has ever seen in the flesh. Soon, however, the crew discovers that their greatest mystery–and most dangerous threat–is an unexpected force wielding a thirst for blood and terror….
George R. R. Martin has stated that the Syfy adaptation of Nightflyers “departs considerably from my novella in certain details, the essence of the story remains the same — and I thought the teleplay was quite strong on its own terms, and a good launching point for a series.”
That essence looks fully intact in the new teaser. Watch here:
The series is expected to premiere on Syfy this fall. What do you think of your first look at Nightflyers?
“Like nothing you’ve seen before.”
Not quite—saw the early 90s* film. This can only be better
*okay, make that saw in the early 90s. Movie was from 87.
I love the novella. Hope this lives up to the written version.
Bob
Insert “Event Horizon” jokes here.
If you live outside the US, this link might work for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ4C4r5P8jM
embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system
It’s interesting that they moved it from the interstellar community of the original story to being in our solar system. Most of Martin’s SF stories are all in the same background – a very complex and baroque universe after the fall of a grand human civilization; perhaps they’ve decided that’s too complicated and need to bring it more into the near future. If done scientifically accurately, it seems like that would change the flavor of the story – inside our solar system you would always be in some contact with Earth; if not done scientifically accurately – for example, a confusion between “galaxy” and “solar system” – that seems like a bad sign. M
This is interesting– visually it reminds me of The Expanse a bit, but the atmosphere/tone is more like Alien. I haven’t read the novella but now I want to.
I hope it is different. The preview makes it seem like pretty standard stuff.