Netflix Orders Sci-Fi Series ‘Altered Carbon’ Based On Richard Morgan Novel

Netflix is betting subscribers want to watch some more science fiction drama. The streaming video-on-demand provider has picked up ten episodes of the sci-fi series Altered Carbon.

Netflix’s Altered Carbon series is based on Richard Morgan’s titular 2002 cyberpunk sci-fi novel, which won the Philip K. Dick Award for best novel in 2003. Set in the 25th century, the book and upcoming Netflix show introduce audiences to a world where human personalities are digitized and can transfer from one body to the next or be saved as backups. The protagonist, a former elite warrior named Takeshi Kovacs, inhabits the body of a San Francisco-based policeman to investigate the possible murder of a man named Laurens Bancroft, whose backup was destroyed in what others believe was an attempted suicide.

The Altered Carbon Netflix series hails from Grace and Frankie studio Skydance Television and is created, written, and executive produced by Laeta Kalogridis

. The Terminator Genisys and Avatar executive producer originally acquired rights to Altered Carbon four years ago through her Mythology Entertainment banner, which she co-launched with Brad Fischer and James Vanderbilt. Fischer and Vanderbilt will co-executive produce Netflix’s Altered Carbon series alongside Kalogridis, Russel Friend, Garrett Lerner, and Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross.

“Altered Carbon is one of the most seminal pieces of post-cyberpunk hard science fiction out there — a dark, complex noir story that challenges our ideas of what it means to be human when all information becomes encodable, including the human mind,” Kalogridis said after acquiring rights to Morgan’s novel, according to a report from Deadline.

No casting information or release date has been announced as of yet for Altered Carbon.