For the first time ever, speculative fiction master Harlan Ellison has granted the film rights to his Hugo and Nebula Award-winning story Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman. The long sought after option was somewhat surprisingly not obtained by one of the big Hollywood studios. Rather Ellison dealt directly with screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski's self-owned development house Studio JMS.

The cover to the illustrated edition of Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman.

Straczynski wrote the screenplays for Thor, World War Z, and many other recent movies. He also created a little thing called Babylon 5. Ellison, who needs no introduction, has seen many of his novels and short stories made into movies and TV shows over the years, including the well-reviewed 1975 adaptation of A Boy and His Dog Ellison has a reputation for being highly demanding when it comes to granting movie rights to his work. The famed author agreed to allow an adaptation of Repent, Harlequin! only after Straczynski delivered a finished screenplay. The extra effort appears to have paid off for the up-and-coming studio, which Deadline says Straczynski built “to take more control of passion projects, and now is branching out to optioning book and short stories like this one that can be commercially viable sci-fi.”Originally appearing in Galaxy Magazine in 1965, Repent, Harlequin! takes place in a future dystopia in which time is the most crucial aspect of life. In this world, being late for assigned activities reduces the amount of time you have left before your heart is stopped remotely. (Though the plot may sound a little similar to the 2011 Justin Timberlake movie In Time, apparently the two are different enough that Ellison voluntarily discontinued his copyright infringement lawsuit after seeing a screening.)The next step is to find production partners and a director, with the two top choices at the moment being Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. Yeah, I guess those guys are okay.

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