Iain M. Banks "The Culture" may be coming to the big screen

Variety is reporting that Dominic Murphy and British independent film production firm Film & Music Entertainment (F&ME) are working on bringing Iain M. Banks's "Culture" to the big screen. Specifically, Variety says "Murphy is penning the screenplay for 'A Gift for the Culture'" which "will be produced by Murphy and F&ME co-toppers Mike Downey and Sam Taylor's newly revived and jointly owned Mass Productions label."

British film magazine Empire describes the story as "about a refugee from Banks' complex utopia The Culture, living undercover on a world that the anarchist socialist intergalactic colonial empire (yes, it's contradictory, we know) has just noticed, and being blackmailed into a violent act using a Culture-specific weapon."

The Banks story is just one of several in the works from Mass Productions, which F&ME describe in this press release.

Banks himself points readers to this Wikipedia entry for a full description of The Culture.