Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy will produce the show, which is based on William Gibson's futuristic sci-fi novel "The Peripheral." Amazon outbid other competitors and gave the project a script-to-series order, bypassing the usual pilot process. Scott B. Smith, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of 1998's "A Simple Plan," will pen the script and produce alongside Nolan and Joy.
The thriller follows Flynne Fisher, a woman in near-future America in which technology has started to subtly alter society. She temporarily takes her brother's security job in a video game/virtual world, but Flynne soon discovers a hidden connection to a very different reality — and the dark future of her own. She witnesses what may have been a murder, which plunges her into a deep, twisting mystery.
Gibson is considered the founder of the sci-fi subgenre known as cyberpunk and coined the term "cyberspace" in his 1982 short story "Burning Chrome." "The Peripheral" also has a sequel, "Agency," which will be published this month.
Nolan and Joy, of course, have had plenty of success adapting sci-fi novels into TV shows, as they did with Michael Crichton's "Westworld." The HBO drama reaped 22 Emmy nominations and was the network's most-watched freshman drama ever. The second season premieres April 22.
