Author Blake Crouch has already provided audiences with some top-notch small screen entertainment. His “Wayward Pines” trilogy became an M. Night Shyamalan-produced series for Fox, and his novel “Good Behavior” was adapted for a TNT series. More recently, in 2024, Apple’s mind-bending multiverse drama “Dark Matter,” based on Crouch’s novel, became the best sci-fi series in years. Then, the author’s 2019 sci-fi story “Recursion” was turned into a movie and TV universe by Shonda Rhimes and Matt Reeves — at least, it was in another timeline. In this timeline, a “Recursion” TV series or movie is yet to materialize.
In 2018 — before “Recursion” even hit shelves — it was announced that Rhimes, of “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” fame, had teamed up with “The Batman” director to bring Crouch’s novel to life via TV and movie adaptations. At the time, the writer described Netflix as the “pitch-perfect home for people who want to adapt film and TV in the most innovative way possible.” It all sounded very exciting. Yet, here we are almost a decade later without any “Recursion” adaptation to speak of. That’s a shame because now is the perfect time for Hollywood to turn Crouch’s novel into the latest hit series and/or movie.
Like “Dark Matter,” “Recursion” tells a truly mind-bending and spectacular story involving time travel and false memories that seems particularly suited to the big screen. With “Project Hail Mary” being the massive hit it was in 2026 and “Dark Matter” proving popular on Apple TV, now is the time to finally bring a “Recursion” adaptation to fruition.
Recursion is ideal source material for big budget blockbuster spectacle
“Recursion” begins by following NYPD Detective Barry Sutton, who has been noticing an increasing number of people afflicted with a condition known as False Memory Syndrome. Sufferers are suddenly struck by memories of lives they never led. After a woman with FMS dies, Barry begins to investigate, leading him to the mysterious Hotel Memory run by nefarious businessman Marcus Slade. Meanwhile, neuroscientist Helena is conducting research into Alzheimer’s and human memory. She develops a new technology known as the “memory chair,” which helps patients relive past memories. After her funding dries up, Slade steps in, but his intentions are less than noble. Eventually, Helena and Barry team up to take on Slade in a timeline-hopping journey where the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Sounds pretty good, right? Well, Netflix, Shonda Rhimes, and Matt Reeves certainly thought so. For whatever reason, however, we’re yet to see any “Recursion” adaptations. But now is the time. Hollywood is enduring somewhat of a crisis. With audiences growing tired of comic book adaptations, it’s time for superhero movies to take a nice long break. That has left somewhat of a vacuum in an industry already struggling amid shifting cultural preferences and the social media age. If the box office success of “A Minecraft Movie” and the “Super Mario” movies are anything to go by, video game adaptations look as though they might provide studios with a way to plug the gap.
Elsewhere, a new wave of filmmakers led by the likes of Kane Parsons and his “Backrooms” movie are also helping to bring in the crowds. Otherwise, there’s sci-fi, and one of the most influential sci-fi writers of the moment thinks a “Recursion” adaptation needs to happen
Recursion needs to be rescued from the past
“Project Hail Mary” dominated the box office in 2026. The big screen adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 novel was a big hit, and studios will be looking for the next sci-fi book to adapt. They need look no further than “Recursion,” which already has Weir’s backing. The “Project Hail Mary” author can’t stop recommending Blake Crouch’s sci-fi book, even going so far as to call it his “personal favorite” Crouch book.
All of which raises the question of what on earth is going on with that ambitious Shonda Rhimes/Matt Reeves adaptation. Was it all just a false memory? For now, there are no official updates, but during an August 2022 Reddit AMA, Crouch seemed to suggest he could do it himself:
“Shonda Rhimes has the rights to make a TV show of it with Netflix for a couple more years. If they can crack it and get it made I will be SO HAPPY. But if not I will take the rights back and maybe try to make it myself like we did with ‘DARK MATTER.’ She is so smart, I’m sure she will get it.”
Those “couple more years” are surely up now, which means Crouch might well be working on his own “Recursion” adaptation, à la the “Dark Matter” Apple TV series on which he acted as showrunner and head writer. A second season of the show is set to debut in August 2026, so perhaps Crouch is busy overseeing that. The author also spoke to Entertainment Weekly about adapting “Recursion” in 2019, saying, “I don’t know how this is going to work. This is definitely not a two-hour movie, but it feels bigger than the small screen, too.” At the time, Rhimes and Reeves seemed to be the answer. Now, who knows.
Credit: Source link