The 2009 Science Fiction Power List
It’s our second annual science fiction power list, featuring the 20 most powerful people and teams in the world of science fiction. Yes, science fiction can wield great power. These are the people who take responsibility for that.
This is not a list of io9’s “favorites,” or a compendium of people we think should have power.
JJ Abrams
Lost. Star Trek. Fringe. At this point, media polymath JJ Abrams can do no wrong on television or at the movies. He’s rebooted Star Trek with a flourish, and even though FOX show Fringe may be flagging in the ratings this year, it’s still garnering critical praise. Next up for Abrams: Two linked sequels to Star Trek and an untitled scifi/spy comedy series.
James Cameron
Whether you love or hate Avatar, there’s no denying Cameron knows how to make science fiction into a rich, technically sophisticated storytelling genre.
David Howe
Though he got a lot of razzing for the Syfy rebranding campaign, Howe has brought the once-marginal SciFi Channel into the mainstream with Syfy’s blend of paranormal reality shows like Ghost Hunters, top-rated miniseries (Tin Man), and attention-grabbing series like Stargate Universe and Warehouse 13.
Charlaine Harris
With her Sookie Stackhouse novels constantly on bestseller lists, and HBO’s Sookie series True Blood a critical and audience hit, Harris is the queen of vampire fiction for adults.
Audrey Niffenegger
With her mega-selling novel The Time Traveler’s Wife now a Hollywood movie, it’s no wonder that Audrey Niffenegger got almost $5 million for her latest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, which came out earlier this year.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh
Jackson and Walsh have been writing and production partners on some of the biggest science fiction and fantasy epics of the last decade, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson and Walsh have also been working with Guillermo Del Toro on developing two forthcoming movies based on The Hobbit.
Michael Bay
Bay exploded his way into some of the biggest box office cash in history with the incomprehensible yet lucrative Transformers 2.
Love this list. And I concur. What do you think of the list? Who would you add or take away and why?
