Home Entertainment SyFy and Wolfgang Petersen to deliver a new Old Man’s War

SyFy and Wolfgang Petersen to deliver a new Old Man’s War

1 min read
18

SyFy are continuing to deliver on their commitment to bring sexy sci-fi and fantasy back. John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” series of military sci-fi novels is the latest to be put into development, and is being led by Wolfgang Petersen (The Neverending Story, Troy).

OldMansWar_GhostBrigade10316763

Named “Ghost Brigades”, after the title of the second of five published novels, the series chronicles the adventures of John Perry following his enlistment into the Colonial Defense Forces, which protects human colonists from all manner of alien threats during humanity’s expansion into the galaxy. The kicker – recruits are all over 65-years old and their consciousness is transferred into much younger, bio-engineered bodies designed to endure the rigors of combat. And they’re green, so keep them away from a certain space ship captain.

The series also deals with a number of issues including ethics, mortality, friendship, personal identity & nature of humanity. The first book,”Old Man’s War” was first published in 2005, and was nominated for a Hugo award in 2006. THR reports that joining Petersen in bringing these stories to life will be producer Scott Stuber (Safe House), while the writing duo of Jake Thornton and Ben Lustig (Winter’s Knight, Thirst) have been tapped to pen the script.

Petersen was actually once picked to direct a feature film adaptation of Scalzi’s story when Paramount first acquired the rights back in 2011, but luckily that production fizzled out leaving us here now for a much more applicable TV series adaptation. Ghost Brigades will be a good fit with SyFy’s upcoming reinvigorated lineup of proper sci-fi and fantasy shows like space operas The Expanse and Ascension, and has the potential to even be the best out of the lot. As a military sci-fi junkie who’s read the series, I’m pretty excited about seeing if it does live up to its potential.

Last Updated: August 7, 2014

18 Comments

  1. Awesome!

    Is the forever war also not coming to screens?

    Reply

    • Rince

      August 7, 2014 at 09:47

      Not sure, been rumours on that for ages haven’t there?

      Reply

      • Kervyn Cloete

        August 7, 2014 at 10:26

        Rdiley Scott was attached to it way back in 2011 or something, but since then, we’ve heard nothing. Forever War needs to be a limited mini-series though, not a movie or full length series. There’s just enough content to fill out 10 or 12 episodes. Anything less than that won’t do it justice, anything more will just be filler.

        Reply

  2. Sith JJ

    August 7, 2014 at 09:47

    Every time I read SyFy I want to shit myself. I cannot take that they changed it.

    Reply

    • Rince

      August 7, 2014 at 09:48

      Lulz. You think for the worse? Man it was kak before!

      Reply

      • Sith JJ

        August 7, 2014 at 09:55

        It’s just the wording that bothers me actually. 😛
        Sci-Fi makes sense. SyFy makes sense if you’re 4.

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          August 7, 2014 at 10:13

          But it’s hip & edgy yo!

          Reply

          • Sith JJ

            August 7, 2014 at 10:17

            Not everyone has the street cred that you do, okay?
            Edgy my arse though. In five years kids aren’t even going to know what the SyFy stands for, or (heaven forbid) they’ll start spelling it synce fyction.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            August 7, 2014 at 10:25

            Sperling? lol1 go back to the 00’s grandpa, you hav no idea whats rad for us kids.

          • Sith JJ

            August 7, 2014 at 10:32

            LOL

          • Rince

            August 7, 2014 at 10:40

            LOL!

        • Kervyn Cloete

          August 7, 2014 at 10:23

          They wanted to keep their name, while still changing it, so as to reposition themselves as a channel that doesn’t just focus on the sci-fi genre. And then that failed miserably as their audience left after all their favourite shows were replaced with reality TV cooking and makeup shows.
          So now they’re trying to turn everything around and reclaim that audience, and I have to admit they definitely appear to be making all the right moves to do so.

          Reply

          • Sith JJ

            August 7, 2014 at 10:32

            Well, at least they’ve realised their mistake then.
            I honestly can’t comment on the channel itself. I’ve never had DSTV and although I own a tv now, the only thing it’s connected to is a PS. I’m a book person, so calling it SyFy just pisses me off. 🙂

          • Rince

            August 7, 2014 at 10:41

            Agreed 100%.

          • Sith JJ

            August 7, 2014 at 10:46

            Suckup 😉

  3. cookiemonster

    August 8, 2014 at 06:20

    It’s no Honor Harrington

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      August 8, 2014 at 08:59

      It’s better ;P

      The later books start getting rather boring because they spend forever recapping the previous books. Although I wouldn’t be averse to seeing the Honorverse on the old telly.

      Reply

      • cookiemonster

        August 8, 2014 at 10:09

        Hear there is a movie coming out based on “Honour of the Queen”

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

The original Chucky is coming back in a new Child’s Play TV series

After last year's reboot, the original Chucky is back to terrorise the neighbourhood in a …