‘Gormenghast’ Series Lands at Showtime With Neil Gaiman, Akiva Goldsman Producing

Joe Otterson

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The planned adaption of Mervyn Peake’s “Gormenghast” book series has found a home at Showtime.

The premium cabler has given the project a script-to-series order and will co-produce along with Fremantle, with a writers room set to be opened soon. Fremantle announced last year that they were developing a series based on the books.

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The books center on the inhabitants of the city-sized castle Gormenghast. Its denizens are only vaguely aware of how or why the castle came to be, but over the course of the series the powers that have held the castle in place are challenged and the ensuing disruptions reveal its fantastical secrets.

Toby Whithouse will serve as executive producer and showrunner. Neil Gaiman, Akiva Goldsman, Dante Di Loreto, Oliver Jones, Barry Spikings, and David Stern will also executive produce.

Whithouse previously created the BBC series “Being Human,” with an American version airing on Syfy in the U.S. for four seasons. He also created the BBC One miniseries “The Game” and the Channel 4 series “No Angels.” His other credits include “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood.”

The highly-celebrated book series was originally comprised of the three novels “Titus Groan,” “Gormenghast,” and “Titus Alone,” with the first installment being published in 1946. Peake was working on a fourth novel, “Titus Awakes,” at the time of his death in 1968. That book was eventually finished by Peake’s widow and released in 2009. Peake also wrote the novella “Boy in Darkness,” which tells the story of a young Titus Groan.

The BBC had previously adapted the first two books into a four-episode miniseries starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Christopher Lee in 2000.

Gaiman also currently has the series adaptation of his novel “American Gods” at Starz, with that show — also produced by Fremantle — preparing to go into its third season. He most recently served as the showrunner on the Amazon limited series adaptation of his and Terry Pratchett’s novel “Good Omens.” Netflix is currently preparing the fifth and final season of “Lucifer,” based on the DC Comics character created by Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg. Gaiman is also set to write and executive produce a Netflix adaptation of his “Sandman” comics series.

Goldsman is currently an executive producer on many of the “Star Trek” projects set up at CBS All Access, including the upcoming series “Star Trek: Picard.” He is also an executive producer on the “Dark Tower” pilot currently in the works at Amazon, having produced and written the screenplay for the 2017 feature film adaptation.

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