Michael B. Jordan To Produce This Broken Earth Adaptation

The Earth is broken and it's about to get a whole lot more broken, if Michael B. Jordan has anything to say about it. Jordan's production company, Outlier Society, has now boarded TriStar's film adaptation of "The Broken Earth" book trilogy by N.K Jemisin.

Deadline reports that Jemisin herself is writing the script and Jordan will co-produce the adaptation. "The Broken Earth" trilogy consists of the novels, "The Fifth Season," "The Obelisk Gate," and "The Stone Sky," published from 2015 to 2017. Each book took home a Hugo, one of the most prestigious awards in science fiction and fantasy literature. It was actually the first time that the same author won three straight years and the same trilogy won for all three of its installments. So "The Broken Earth carries some clout.

The setting is "a harsh futuristic Earth and a continent called the Stillness, which endures seasonal apocalyptic events that shake the world and its inhabitants." Against this backdrop, people called "orogenes" are employed to control the elements, modifying temperatures and warding off earthquakes.

Just last week, Apple TV+ debuted its adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation," another Hugo Award-winning work that deals with apocalyptic events. It was thought to be unfilmable, but the movie and TV market appears to be opening up to more of these dense sci-fi and fantasy mythologies, if for no other reason than because there's still a big "Game of Thrones"-sized hole to fill.

If the ending of "Thrones" felt rushed and you wanted an extra season or two like George R.R. Martin, maybe "The Broken Earth" will scratch that fantasy itch in a different way. Given its title and premise, it sounds as if "The Broken Earth," like "Foundation," might be primed to address the real climate-change plight of our planet in a direct or indirect way. 

TriStar Pictures is a division of Sony, which is also distributing Denzel Washington's "A Journal for Jordan" this Christmas. Jordan, the actor, stars in that film as a U.S. soldier in Iraq, keeping a journal of life wisdom for his son, Jordan, back home.

Sony Tristar reportedly acquired the rights to "The Broken Earth" last summer in a seven-figure deal. Meanwhile, Time magazine recently named Jemisin one of the 100 most influential people of 2021.

Some of the other projects that Jordan's Outlier Society has in development are a live-action adaptation of the DC Comic, "Static Shock," co-produced by Reginald Hudlin, and a Muhammad Ali series, "The Greatest," for Amazon Studios.

We'll keep you posted on "The Broken Earth" adaptation as it develops, presuming the actual Earth doesn't break first.