Television is also an avid market for sci-fi novels. Screenwriter Gavin Scott has just finished adapting two Ursula Le Guin novels into Earthsea, a four-hour Sci-Fi Channel miniseries. Isabella Rossellini has signed on to star, and the series shoots in May for a December air-date. Scott's challenge was that the books, The Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan (both Bantam paperbacks), are two self-contained stories. "I had to weave the plots together, so that the strands from the first book continue into the second, and the strands from the second reach back into the first," he said. Having also adapted Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon for television, he was very much aware of handling a sacred text. "Like Earthsea, Mists of Avalon is a book with a devoted following, and I had to make sure that apart from introducing the story to a generation who were not familiar with it, I also had an obligation to those people to whom the book had been important in their youth."
In dealing with the younger readership of the book and an older demographic for the series, Scott observed, "Teenagers today are more demanding and sophisticated than ever, so in making sure a series works for them, I also have to make sure it appeals to a mature audience. The Earthsea books have such depth that they work for older people without having to make changes. Just by exploring the psychology of each character, you've got something that's also quite appropriate for adult entertainment."
Looking into the future, Vicinanza is confident that Hollywood will continue to be a strong market for science-fiction books. He pointed out, "In the last 50 years, space is really the only guaranteed place where there is a frontier where mystery can still occur."
