Apple is reportedly developing a series based on Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel Dark Matter, according to Collider (via Syfy Wire). Crouch is working on the script, and will serve as executive producer, along with Venom producer Matt Tolmach and David Manpearl.
The novel is a Crichton-esque thriller that follows a man named Jason Dessen, who’s seemingly enjoying a mundane existence as a physics teacher and father. However, when he’s attacked and kidnapped, he wakes up to find himself surrounded by people in hazmat suits, people who seem to know him even though he’s never seen them before.
As it turns out, in an alternate world, he was a successful physicist who came up with a theory about multiple worlds, and how to travel between them. In this alternate world, he had made many different choices, and he despairs at the family he’s now missing. Using the technology his doppelgänger pioneered, he works to try and figure out how to return home.
There’s been keen interest in adapting the book for years now. A full two years ahead of the book’s original release, Sony Pictures snapped up the rights on the basis of the first 150 pages, and a couple of months after it hit stores, Roland Emmerich was in talks to sign on as director for a movie adaptation.
That version of the project obviously hasn’t gone anywhere, and it looks like Apple wants to take a shot at the story. Collider notes that Tolmach and Crouch are working on retooling it as a series for Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV +.
The project is apparently being described as a “high-concept sci-fi thriller in the vein of Memento and Looper,” which is a somewhat accurate description of the novel, and would make for a solid thriller for Apple to add to its growing library of original streaming content.
