Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Hulu Is Adapting Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, AMC Releases Synopsis for The Walking Dead S10, and More

Sci Fi TV News Briefs: Quick hits keeping you updated on sci fi and fantasy television news.

Life, The Universe, and Everything: Hulu is developing a television adaptation of Douglas Adams’ seminal sci fi comedy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It follows the adventures of Earth-man Arthur Dent who flees from the planet with alien Ford Prefect just before it is destroyed. They eventually join Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed rogue president of the galaxy, Marvin the paranoid android, and Earth-woman Trillian and travel through the galaxy with the titular book as their guide. Carlton Cuse (Lost, Colony) will executive produce and act as showrunner with Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman) onboard as writer. Hitchhiker’s Guide started as a radio series in 1978 and later was adapted to a novel which had multiple sequels. A BBC TV series was produced in 1981 which brought over several members from the radio cast. A film adaptation was produced in 2005, but it received mixed reviews. The new TV series will likely debut on Hulu in the latter half of 2020.

AMC Gets Farmhand: AMC is going back to comics for its next TV series as the cable network will be developing Image’s Farmhand which was created by Rob Guillory (Chew). CBR.com gives the following description of the comic:

Farmhand follows young father Ezekiel Jenkins who is drawn back into the family’s cash crop business of growing organic body parts for medical use. However, as Ezekiel reunites with his estranged father, it becomes clear there are more bloody, sinister secrets running through the soil.

LaToya Morgan (Into the Badlands) will executive produce and develop the series and it will likely debut at some point in 2020.

Walking Tall: AMC has released the following synopsis for the upcoming tenth season of its zombie-pocalypse drama The Walking Dead:

The Walking Dead is a story that started 10 years ago with one man trying to find his family. That family grew and gradually communities took shape. They fought and survived, thrived and gave birth to a new generation. It is a tale of humankind and there are more stories to tell.
It is now Spring, a few months after the end of Season 9, when our group of survivors dared to cross into Whisperer territory during the harsh winter. The collected communities are still dealing with the after effects of Alpha’s horrific display of power, reluctantly respecting the new borderlines being imposed on them, all while organizing themselves into a militia-style fighting force, preparing for a battle that may be unavoidable.

But the Whisperers are a threat unlike any they have ever faced. Backed by a massive horde of the dead it is seemingly a fight they cannot win. The question of what to do and the fear it breeds will infect the communities and give rise to paranoia, propaganda, secret agendas, and infighting that will test them as individuals and as a society. The very idea of whether civilization can survive in a world filled with the dead hangs in the balance.

That series is currently schedule to return on October 6th.

Quibi Receives Transmissions: The short-form video service Quibi, focusing on original programming for smart phones, continues to ramp up new series and has ordered the sci fi series Transmissions. According to Deadline Hollywood “the show is set at a remote radio observatory where a lone scientist begins receiving eerie signals from deep space”. The show comes from British writer and producer Jed Mercurio and should debut at some point in 2020.

Production Notes: Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel has cast its first role with Markella Kavenagh joining the production. Dana Calvo is joining Jon Spaihts as co-showrunner on the upcoming Dune: The Sisterhood which will debut on HBO Max next year. HBO’s first Game of Thrones prequel has finished filming and is now in the editing stage with a 2020 debut on the horizon.