These days, news that J.J. Abrams is involved with another science fiction project is about as common as news that the sun rose in the morning. I hesitate to call him the modern Godfather of science fiction, but, well, nobody is refusing his offers. Which, based on the results so far, I’m not complaining. Well, it’s a new day, so it must be time for another J.J. Abrams sci-fi project. This time, THR is reporting that he’s reteaming with HBO (after the success of Westworld) to produce a new sci-fi series called ‘Glare.’

What’s Glare About?

As with most projects in the early stages, there’s not a lot of detail available about the plot. But here’s what we know. Glare will be an hourlong sci-fi drama series exploring the colonization of another planet.

And Who’s Going to Be Involved?

Abrams will be producing, through his Bad Robot brand, along with HBP. Spanish writer Javier Gullon will be writing both the pilot and executive producing the series, though reports so far don’t specify if he’ll write the entire series (or at least first season) or be serving as showrunner for the series. The series is based off an original idea by Gullon, and comes from a blind development deal between him and Bad Robot (which as I understand it is the deal equivalent of ‘we like you, so whatever you happen to write, we’re interested and we get to look at and possibly produce it first’).

Otherwise, no additional creatives have been announced yet.

Over the past two years, publishers TOR.com have taken the sci-fi novella and made them an important part of their imprint. They’ve used a form some considered almost dead to put out fascinating new stories by great authors.

So what created this opportunity? How has TOR used it? And what sorts of great stories will you find in their sci-fi novellas? [Click here to read more…]

So Why Should I Care?

Well, Abrams involvement is generally a good sign. And with Westworld serving as the current example (and hopefully soon to be followed by Johnathan Nolan’s proposed Foundation series… please…?), HBO is showing they can be a great home for science fiction. OK, so what about Gullon? Well, he’s been writing Spanish feature films for a while, and though I haven’t seen any of them, he recently wrote the adaptation for Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Enemy,‘ which was an excellent movie. So with all of that in mind, I’m looking forward to this project. Hopefully, we’ll start to hear more soon.