A legendary progressive rock song is making the leap to the big screen.
Karn Evil 9, a new dystopian science-fiction film inspired by Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s iconic 1973 rock suite of the same name, is officially moving forward with director Isaac Ezban attached to helm the project. Ezban is best known to genre fans for films including The Incident and Párvulos, both of which earned attention for their ambitious sci-fi and horror concepts.
The film is being adapted from a screenplay by Tim Hedrick, whose previous credits include Avatar: The Last Airbender. According to the official synopsis, the story follows a gifted but troubled young musician named Zak, who is invited to perform at a massive music festival taking place inside the world’s most popular video game. What begins as a career-changing opportunity soon spirals into something far more dangerous when he uncovers a mysterious technology that could alter the future of humanity.
The project is being developed by Radar Pictures in collaboration with Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s management team. Carl Palmer, the surviving founding member of the influential prog-rock trio, is among the executive producers supporting the adaptation.
The title comes from Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s nearly 30-minute rock suite “Karn Evil 9,” originally released on the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery. The song is famous for its futuristic themes, including technology, societal control, and conflict between humans and machines, ideas that appear to have heavily influenced the film’s direction.
While the movie remains in development and has not yet received a release date, the combination of dystopian science fiction, virtual worlds, and one of progressive rock’s most celebrated works makes Karn Evil 9 one of the more unusual genre projects currently on the horizon.
