Alan Taylor, a standout director from the early seasons of Game of Thrones who segued that success into a Marvel movie with Thor: The Dark World, will direct the pilot episode of Ringworld, a series for Amazon based on Larry Niven’s Known Space novels. Between 1970 and 2012, Niven wrote or co-wrote five Ringworld novels, in addition to a number of other books in the Fleet of Worlds series. The pilot is set to be written and produced by Akiva Goldsman, best known for his work on movies like A Beautiful Mind and Batman & Robin. It has been in development since 2017.
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Ringworld centers on Louis Gridley Wu, a human who begins the first novel while celebrating his 200th birthday in a technologically-advanced Earth in the distant future. Wu joins a young woman and a pair of aliens on an interstellar journey to explore the Ringworld, a massive, artificial ring beyond “Known Space,” and uncover the mysteries of Ring, only to learn that it may have been put there by an alien race with ties to humanity’s origins. Goldsman revealed to Collider that Taylor is directing the project, which has been stuck in development hell for a while but is now moving forward.
“Alan Taylor is attached to direct, and hopefully that will turn into an actual set of moving pictures, but God knows,” Goldsman told Collider.
Announced back in 2013, the original iteration of Ringworld was to be adapted by Michael Perry, and was planned as a four-hour miniseries.
Given that the Fleet of Worlds stories retroactively incorporate elements of the Ringworld series into Wu’s younger years, it’s not clear whether some elements of those books will find their way into Ringworld if the series goes forward.
“I don’t know what Amazon is looking for, but they seem to like these larger objects that have scope and scale, if you [go] all the way back to that initial play with Man in the High Castle,” said Goldsman. “I think that these big, comprehensive universes, there are very few of them still available, and I certainly think Known Space is one of them, for those of us who were Larry Niven fans in our high school days. Niven’s world, his universe, dare I say, is incredibly complex and nuanced, and Ringworld has always been this entry point. Better minds than mine have tried to crack it, but hopefully we’ll do it this time.”
