US network Showtime is currently developing a TV series based on Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast fantasy novels, according to THR. The project already has Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman attached as executive producers, and is opening up a writers’ room under creator and showrunner Toby Whitehouse (Doctor Who).
Serving as executive producers alongside Gaiman and Goldsman are Whitehouse, Dante Di Loreto, Oliver Jones, Barry Spikings and David Stern.
Titus Groan, the first novel in the Peake’s fantasy series, was published in 1946, with Gormenghast and Titus Alone following in 1950 and 1959 respectively. Sadly, Peake died in 1968 before he was able to finish the fourth book, Titus Awakes. However his widow, Maeve Gilmore, completed the story for him and the book was published in 2009.
The books follow Titus, who’s born into nobility in a huge city-sized castle called Gormenghast that is isolated from the rest of the world by uninhabitable territory on all sides. Though he’s due to inherit the castle, Titus is curious about the outside world and longs to escape Gormenghast, even an its residents continue to perform traditional rituals whose purpose is long forgotten.
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