Submarine Options Sci-Fi Novel Echo Boy

Submarine has optioned the rights to Matt Haig’s best-selling science-fiction novel Echo Boy to adapt as a hybrid live-action/animated series.

Set in the year 2115, Echo Boy follows teenager Audrey Castle whose life is shattered after her parents are murdered by a malfunctioning Echo—a humanoid robot designed to assist with every aspect of daily life. When Audrey crosses paths with a thinking and feeling Echo prototype named Daniel, she is forced to grapple with her prejudices, fears and the idea of what it means to be human.

For the series, Submarine is partnering up with long-time collaborator Tommy Pallotta, who co-developed the animation technique used in A Scanner Darkly, Waking Life and Undone.

Femke Wolting, co-founder and co-managing director at Submarine, said: “Submarine is already the largest studio in the Netherlands, but what we have been building with Undone, Apollo 10 ½ and now with Echo Boy is a truly global slate of high-end, innovative projects that aim to push the medium of animation forward. Matt’s book is futuristic but also intensely human—and has the combination of an original world and resonant truth we look for in a story.”

Haig added: “I am very excited that Echo Boy is being developed for the screen by Submarine. It is a novel with a level of scope and ambition which needs to be factored into the adaptation, and I am confident Submarine’s visual flair and imaginative creativity make them equal to the challenge. It is the perfect home.”