Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has been tapped to write Red Mars, Spike TV’s scripted drama series project in development based on Kim Stanley Robinson’s best-selling “hard” science-fiction trilogy about the colonization and terraforming transformation of Mars into a place where humans can live sustainably.

The TV series adaptation, named after the first book in the trilogy, has been on fast-track development at Spike since the network took in the project in October with HBO’s Game Of Thrones co-executive producer Vince Gerardis as producer and Robinson as consultant.

The three novels — Red Mars (1993), Green Mars (1994) and Blue Mars (1996), which have won Nebula and Hugo Awards — are regarded as the best books written on the subject and a holy grail for science fiction fans.

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Straczynski, repped by Paradigm, wrote the Clint Eastwood feature The Changeling and co-wrote Thor and World War Z. In TV, he is wrapping the first season of Sense8, Netflix’s upcoming sci-fi series that Straczynski co-wrote and executive produces/runs with the Wachowskis. He has written more than 300 produced episodes of television and nearly 500 comics for Marvel, DC and others.