Hey folks, here's another one of those Don Murphy projects we've been covering and the details on where the film is at. This is an Ellison book I haven't come across, and I must profess I haven't seen this show either, but then we don't get much Canadian TV down here in Texas. But if you want to learn more about that series and the book... well, Click Here To Find Out More!
PHOENIX WITHOUT ASHES
STORY:
Based on the novel by Harlan Ellison (with Edward Bryant) which was also the basis for an incredibly crappy Canadian TV series called the STARLOST. In the book, the hero lives in a small Amish community and commits heresy by questioning his elders.... he flees to the hills pursued by the community .... and finds a metallic "hatch" built into the hill. He opens it, and slides down a long tube - - - into a space ship. But he's never heard of such a thing- he's believed all his life that he lived in a world only twenty miles long. The ship is seriously damaged, but it tells him about a place he's heard of in legend, EARTH, which hundreds of years ago heard about a comet that would destroy EARTH. The residents of earth united and built a huge ship, miles long, and filled it with biodomes, dozens of them, each representing cities and sections of earth. The ship set off for an inhabitable planet near Alpha Centurai with a crew and linked biodomes on a voyage that would take 500 years. Earth was destroyed, but the ship continued onward. A hundred years out, a meteor storm seriously damages the ship- the crew is wiped out, biodomes are destroyed or damaged, but the ship sails on. Over time, the sealed off biodomes become little worlds, and earth becomes a distant memory. Our hero learns all this, but it is like the ship has summoned him - instead of being close to their new home, the damage centuries before has subtly altered the steering and so the ship is close to collapsing into a nearby sun. Where the controls are and how to use them becomes the problem of our hero- who merely wants to return to his world and save his beloved. He is chased from world to world by the elders who believe him to be the devil as he seeks to save the remainders of Earth's population.
STATUS: On the fast track at Columbia Pictures, David Goyer (BLADE, DARK CITY) is producing with me and writing and should be turning in a first draft within a couple of weeks...... Columbia is hoping this can be a big SF franchise....
That's number four, Sir Harold!
