The Wachowskis And J. Michael Straczynski Team Up For Netflix Series Sense8
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When Netflix got into the original series game with the crime drama Lilyhammer and the political drama House of Cards, it opened up a strange avenue for programming at a time when audiences are still slowly growing accustomed to high-quality cable series. Some of Netflix’s attention has been spent bringing cancelled series back to life, like the comedic pinnacle of Arrested Development and the…whatever people liked about The Killing, but it hasn’t closed the door on other shows.
For instance, Netflix has just sealed the deal on a 10-episode order of Sense8, a new sci-fi project from the Wachowskis, which marks the siblings’ first entry into televised storytelling. Instead of wondering how the duo can possibly get into TV when Jupiter Ascending is still in whatever mode of production it’s currently in, take comfort in knowing they’ll be joined on Sense8 by Babylon 5 creator and all-around talented guy J. Michael Straczynski, whose Studio JMS will be one of several production companies involved. These are three of the more important filmmakers in the genre, so chances are it’s going to be really great to some, terrible to others, and misunderstood by the rest. Just like everything else.
Sense8 is described as a “gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted,” which doesn’t really explain a whole lot, as is the case with the Wachowskis’ explanation for their inspiration for the project. The siblings explain that “Several years ago, we had a late-night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us, and out of that paradox Sense8 was born.”
Tipping their hats to JMS, they said:
We’re excited to work with Netflix and Georgeville Television on this project, and we’ve wanted to work with Joe Straczynski for years, chiefly due to the fact his name is harder to pronounce than ours, but also because we share a love of genre and all things nerdy.
The show isn’t scheduled for any sort of release until late 2014, so we’ll have lots of rumors flying around about this thing before too much longer. And hopefully one of those rumors is that Keanu Reeves wants nothing to do with it.
