"... arise From death, you numberless infinities of souls, and to your scattered bodies go..." -- John Donne

                         Alex Proyas
Executive Producer

born in 1963
from Sydney, Australia

Filmography of Note: 

The Crow (1994)
Dark City (1998)




Commentary:

He's actually not the director we would have thought of for this series, but the more we think about it, the more we like him.  The Crow remains a cult favorite, and demonstrates a director with a specific creative vision that is just cutting his teeth.  His next film, Dark City, was nothing short of brilliant, quite possibly the best dark sci-fi film to come out since Blade Runner.

But what makes Proyas perfect is not the fact that he can do sci-fi (and appears to enjoy it greatly), but that he can mix disparate genres into a cohesive central theme.  For instance, Dark City is not just a science fiction film.  Perhaps more so, it is a taut psychological thriller with overtones of paranoia and self discovery.  It is a journey from the darkness into the light of knowledge.  

Upon this close examination of Dark City and the Riverworld Series, the similarities between them become quickly obvious:  

• Murdoch, the main character, is apparently accidentally awakened during a medical procedure.  Everyone else is unconscious as the Strangers prepare a new city for the people with new memories.  It slowly becomes apparent that Murdoch was not accidentally awakened at all, and has been pushed toward his destiny by a traitor within the Strangers' ranks.
• Burton, the main character, is purposely awakened during a procedure in which all the humans around him are unconscious and unaware of what is going on around them.  The Ethicals are preparing these humans for a new world, with the populace completely unawares of the true goals of the experiment.  It slowly becomes apparent that Burton is being pushed toward his destiny by a traitor within the Ethicals' ranks.  

This examination is not to show that Proyas stole his ideas from the Riverworld series; rather, I aim only to demonstrate that he is the perfect director for this kind of project.  

Here's an excellent quote (from this site) by Proyas that not only highlights a potential personal reason for his interest in the Riverworld, but perhaps gives us a glimpse into his goals for the Riverworld television series (though he was not talking about the show directly):

"To me, the soul is really what makes us human. Is there a soul, and is that where humanity comes from? As an individual we dress and act in a certain way. But that's not truly who we are -- it is something else, a spirit from somewhere else that makes us what we are. That essence will go on and carry on past the physical life. I find it very hard to believe that you die and the lights go out and that's it. That's the most horrific concept of existence -- I can't accept that."

design and original materials (c) 2001  J. Hazlett Foreman