Gormenghast fantasy TV series with Neil Gaiman heads to Showtime

After showrunning Amazon’s Good Omens and executive producing Starz’s American Gods, fantasy author Neil Gaiman keeps adding more to his list of television projects. This new one, however, is not based on his own work.

Showtime is in development on a Gormenghast fantasy drama based on the books by author Mergyn Peake, EW has learned.

The project hails from Gaiman, Doctor Who writer Toby Whithouse, and Star Trek: Picard EP Akiva Goldsmith. Whithouse will serve as showrunner.

The books are mainly comprised of Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone. Together, they chronicle the inhabitants of the gothic-style Gormenghast Castle, home of the Groan dynasty and their master Lord Sepulchrave. Titus is in line to inherit the castle, but he longs to branch out beyond the walls as the residents maintain archaic rituals.

Peake’s widow Maeve Gilmore completed his planned fourth book, Titus Awakes, after the writer’s death.

BBC previously adapted the fantasy trilogy for television in 2000 with a four-part event starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Christopher Lee.

“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,” Gaiman told Deadline, which first reported the news. “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.”

Gaiman is also working on a TV series for Netflix based on his acclaimed Sandman comics that he will both write and executive produce.

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