Clooney, Sci Fi Celebrate 'The Diamond Age'
By Daniel Fienberg
January 12, 2007

George ClooneySci Fi Channel has ordered a six-hour miniseries based on Neal Stephenson's best-selling novel "The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" to be produced by George Clooney. During its Television Critic's Association press tour panel, Sci Fi announced an ambitious development slate that also includes productions from familiar names Darren Star ("Sex and the City") and Mark Burnett ("Survivor"). "Sci Fi originals continue to push the boundaries of imagination to help us envision and explore a reality and a future far beyond the scope of our experience," says Mark Stern, the cable network's executive vice president of original programming. "From provocative screen adaptations of science fiction bestsellers to futurist action thrillers and off-beat, Earth-based human dramas, Sci Fi offers an inventive range of originals that reflect the genre's ever-broadening appeal." Stephenson will adapt "The Diamond Age" for Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smokehouse Productions. The book, set in a neo-Victorian futuristic society involves an underprivileged young lady who gets her hands of a technologically advanced book intended only for the children of the upper classes. (Zap2it)