While you'd expect him to have his hands full overseeing the various Star Trek shows either in production or warping into existence, Alex Kurtzman has apparently carved out some time to work on a new TV adaptation of Walter Tevis' novel The Man Who Fell To Earth for Discovery home CBS All Access.
Famously adapted by Nicolas Roeg and starring David Bowie in 1976, the story follows an alien who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.
Kurtzman has been developing the new series alongside Star Trek: Discovery's Jenny Lumet, and they'll co-write the episodes with Kurtzman directing. The aim is to start shooting it once Discovery's third season is complete.
And lest you think Kurtzman is stoking film fan ire by trying to directly remake the film, he's actually planning something more like a follow-up. "It’s a new alien, a new character, a whole new situation," he said. "but it definitely holds true to the spirit of what Tevis was doing in the novel." Lumet, meanwhile, describes it as "the next moment in the timeline".
Announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, the series will find the main character also introducing technology that changes mankind.
"It also allows us to really explore where we are at this insane intersection between our humanity and our technology, and they seem to be merging more and more these days," he told The Wrap. "All the great sci-fi ends up predicting the future, if you look at all the things that really lasted, and Walter Tevis did that."
There's no word yet on when the show will hit the air.