Darren Aronofsky has a thing for apocalyptic disaster, it seems. The Noah director is in talks with HBO to develop a futurist series called MaddAddam, based on the dystopian trilogy written by Margaret Atwood.

The books are set in a mid-21st century world where genetic engineering is rife and corporations have taken over from governments, and follows the events leading up to and after a global catastrophe only known as the Waterless Flood. 

Oryx and Crake, the first book in the series, was nominated for the Man Booker Prize as well as the Orange Prize For Fiction – it even inspired The Knife to name two songs off Shaking The Habitual, their 2013 album, "Oryx" and "Crake". 

The trilogy isn't strictly sci-fi – or at least, not as Atwood imagines. The Canadian author prefers to describe them as "speculative fiction", as it deals with "things that have not been invented yet". 

This marks Aronofsky's first project for television, though it probably won't be the last – early this year, the director signed a three year deal with New Regency/HBO to develop TV and film proejcts with them. Hopefully, MaddAddam will be beset by less trouble than Noah, which was banned in several countries and went through development hell.

Read our April interview with Darren Aronofsky here.