Gaiman and Goldsman Producing GORMENGHAST for Showtime
Showtime is planning to adapt Mervyn Peake’s Ghormenghast books series.
The book series centers around the denizens of an ancient sprawling castle, Gormenghast. The castle is a city sized Gothic structure that is crumbling both physically and socially.
Toby Whithouse has signed on as showrunner and executive producer. Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman will also serve as executive producers along with Dante Di Loreto, Oliver Jones, Barry Spikings, and David Stern.
You might recognize Whithouse as the creator of Being Human and writer of multiple episodes of Doctor Who.
Fremantle, which also produces Gaiman’s American Gods for Starz, will be the production company behind the Ghormenghast series. Gaiman is also set to write and executive produce the Netflix adaptation of his legendary comic series, Sandman.
According to an interview with Deadline, Gaiman had this to say about his involvement and the Gormenghast books:
“The joy of trying to describe Gormenghast to people is one where words will fail you and that’s why there have been people who wanted to film Gormenghast ever since Peake wrote the first book. The BBC once tried but they were all making it in times when depicting the impossible on the screen was too difficult. The great thing now is that we can make it and actually show it and take you there. We are now in a world where you can put the impossible on screen and with Gormenghast, you’re not just dealing with a castle the size of a city but dealing with these incredibly glorious and memorable people.”
It will be interesting to see where these talented storytellers take the series and how faithful fans will receive its adaptation.
