Prime Original adaptation of Banks' Culture series called off

A planned Amazon television adaptation of the late Scottish author Iain M Banks’ space opera, Consider Phlebas, has been cancelled.

It was announced two years ago that Amazon Studios had acquired the global television rights to the first novel set in Banks’ fictional interstellar utopian society, the Culture, at which time Amazon c.e.o. Jeff Bezos tweeted the news to his followers, revealing the Culture series was a "personal favourite" of his. The series was to be adapted as a Prime Original by British screenwriter Dennis Kelly, who worked on “Utopia” and “Matilda”, with Plan B Entertainment, of “12 Years a Slave”, “The Big Short”, “Moonlight”, slated to produce.

However, the estate of Iain Banks has now reported the “timing wasn’t quite right” for the adaptation to go ahead. “The interest and devotion that Iain’s work continues to inspire is a testament to the enduring relevance of his ideas and imagination,” Banks’ estate told the Guardian. “The estate is hugely grateful for all the care and creative energy that went into the early stages of the project.”

Consider Phlebas was first published more than 30 years ago, in 1987, by Little, Brown, going on the become the first in the 10-part series featuring the Culture. Banks died in 2013 aged 59.