It was kind of an odd idea in the first place: a prestige series based on a stylish but hardly-a-blockbuster ’90s film? Could work, could be weird. But it’s not to be, at least not on its intended network. Variety reports that Showtime “is not moving forward” with several projects, one of which is Gattaca.
It isn’t necessarily the absolute end for the series adaptation, which was just announced in March developed by Homeland creators Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon along with Dallas Buyers Club co-writer Craig Borten. Variety notes of Gattaca and several other canned series, “All of the projects were produced by outside studios, which sources say was the reason they were scrapped. Those studios will all have the option to now shop the projects to other outlets.”
But it is another symptom of all the changes at Paramount and Showtime, which have smushed themselves together into one entity and then, as happens, started making cuts—including the cancellation of Star Trek: Prodigy, which was not just cancelled (after having been renewed for a second season) but entirely removed from the Paramount+ platform.
Reportedly, the plan for the combined Paramount+ With Showtime streaming platform is to build a world of spinoffs, some of which may focus on characters from Dexter and Billions. It’s easy enough to guess that Gattaca—based on a one-off original SF film from writer/director Andrew Niccol—didn’t quite fit in that landscape.
