Robert A. Heinlein's classic 1961 novel Stranger In A Strange Land has been put into development by Paramount as a series for Syfy, and it’s almost guaranteed to be controversial given the subject matters it takes on.
The story, set in the aftermath of a third world war, centers on Valentine Michael Smith, a human born on Mars and raised by Martians, who, as a young adult, has returned to Earth. There he begins the next phase of his life locked up in seclusion — and ostensibly for his own safety — at Bethesda Hospital. Eventually managing to escape, he rapidly begins to have a transformative effect on humanity, notably in the form of a growing religion, the center at which he sits.
The controversial elements, and true driving forces of the novel, are religion and sex, which Heinlein’s publisher at the time wanted him to cut out. But as the author noted to his literary agent, if religion and sex were removed from the text, what remained would be the equivalent of a “nonalcoholic martini.”
The story, he continued, was designed to be a look at human culture from the non-human viewpoint of Smith, and in addition to a couple of dozen “satirical slants,” the two things he was taking on were “the two biggest, fattest sacred cows of all, the two that every writer is supposed to give at least lip service to: the implicit assumptions of our Western culture concerning religion and concerning sex. I don’t see how to take out the sex and religion. If I do, there isn’t any story left.”
Producers on the proposed series version of Stranger include Brad Fischer, William Sherak, Julia Gunn and Scott Rudin. Says NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Chairman Bonnie Hammer, “From my point of view, Stranger In A Strange Land isn’t just a science-fiction masterpiece. It also happens to be one of my favorite books ever. The story is timeless and resonates more than ever in today’s world. As a fan, I can’t wait to see it come to life as a world-class television event.”
A previous attempt at adapting Heinlein’s novel came in 1995, when Batman Returns' Dan Waters penned a script designed for Tom Hanks and Sean Connery, which was for Paramount Pictures. A proposed budget of $160 million sent that version back to Mars. A close cousin to Stranger is Walter Tevis’ 1963 novel The Man Who Fell To Earth, which was adapted by Nicolas Roeg as the 1976 David Bowie film. Both novel and film have a lot in common with Heinlein’s tale.