Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s prog-rock classic “Karn Evil 9” will serve as the inspiration for an upcoming sci-fi film.
Deadline reports that Radar Pictures has secured the rights to the centerpiece of ELP’s 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery with Robopocalypse author Daniel H. Wilson on board to adapt “Karn Evil 9” into a screenplay.
Carl Palmer, the lone surviving member of ELP, confirmed on Twitter that a “sci-fi movie franchise” based on the band’s 30-minute, three-suite “Karn Evil 9” is in development.
According to Radar Pictures, the studio behind the recent Jumanji reboots, the “Karn Evil 9” film will take place in “a society that has drained all its blood with a dependence on technology.” The movie also “will explore the world controlled by a pervasive and dictatorial technocracy.”
“The annual ‘Karn Evil’ — a macabre rite of passage — is a young person’s once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience unbridled freedom, before subjugating themselves to the ruling class,” Deadline said of the film’s plot. “When people stop returning from their Karn Evil experience, fear drives a revolution to topple the status quo and the artificial intelligence discovered at its heart.”
Producer Ted Field added in a statement, “The visionary world that ELP created with their recording ‘Karn Evil 9’ is much closer to reality today. Our team at Radar looks forward to bringing this vision of where things may be headed to the big screen and beyond.”
