Arthur C. Clarke Miniseries on SyFy

SyFy is bringing Arthur C. Clarke's dark and fascinating novel Childhood's End to television in December as a three night event.  Here is the trailer and what SyFy has in store:

Written by Arthur C. Clarke and hailed as a revolutionary work of science fiction since its publishing in 1953, Childhood’s End follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious “Overlords,” whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.

Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) will play Karellen, the ambassador for the Overlords. Mike Vogel (Under the Dome) will play Ricky Stormgren, a midwestern farmer whose life is turned upside down when he is named the sole human ambassador for the Overlords. Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) will play Rupert Boyce, an enigmatic American entrepeneur. 

Surprisingly, this story has yet to be brought to the screen, though Stanley Kubrick considered it and the BBC brought it to radio.  This is not necessarily something you want to watch with the kids, or even if you are a new parent.  And I do not foresee a sequel to this story given its ending.  No, it's a scary story in so many ways and, while possibly hopeful in some ways, it certainly does not fit into our understanding of hope.  

One book reviewer had his to say:

If Childhood's End was Clarke's way of coming to terms with a hostile and excessively weaponized world gone mad, as so many of his fellow writers were doing at the time (Nevil Shute in On the Beach and Walter M. Miller in A Canticle for Leibowitz, to name but two), then the eloquence with which he does so remains moving to this day. Sure, the human race is a mess. But in our imperfections lies our humanity. With so many great achievements to contrast all our evils, it says a lot that one of Clarke's Overlords can say, even as the curtain descends on our poor doomed species, "Remember this — we shall always envy you."

By the way, I would like to see A Canticle for Leibowitz on the screen at some point as well.  It was another great story.