Remember the days when it seemed impossible to get aNeil Gaimanadaptation off the ground? For years,American Godsgot passed around with dwindling hope it would ever get made, and theSandmanmovie is still hitting snags — the most recent beingJoseph Gordon-Levitt’sdeparture. Now that Gaiman’s fantasy epic iscoming to Starz, another title from the author’s massive library is heading to television.
Amazon Studios announced today thatGood Omens, written by Gaiman andTerry Pratchett, will be developed into a six-episode hourlong comedy miniseries, which will kick off on Amazon Prime sometime in 2018. Meanwhile, U.K. viewers will see it broadcast on the BBC.
Gaiman is also attached to write all the episodes and act as showrunner, and he’s pretty stoked about it. He said in a statement about his work with Pratchett, who passed away in March of 2015:
Almost 30 years ago, Terry Pratchett and I wrote the funniest novel we could about the end of the world, populated with angels and demons, not to mention an 11-year-old Antichrist, witchfinders, and the four horsepeople of the Apocalypse. It became many people’s favorite book. Three decades later, it’s going to make it to the screen. I can’t think of anyone we’d rather make it with than BBC Studios, and I just wish Sir Terry were alive to see it.
The original book,Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, is a story about the end of existence as laid out in “the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies,” which was penned by the titular witch in 1655 “before she exploded.” With the world ending Saturday — “next Saturday, in fact” — a fussy angel named Aziraphale and a fast-living demon named Crowley aren’t too thrilled about the apocalypse.
Doctor Who’sCaroline Skinner,Fleabag’sChris Sussman,Choosing to Die’sRob Wilkins, andGoing Postal’sRod Brownwill all serve as executive producers on the series.
