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Neil Gaiman to Adapt Good Omens for TV
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Fantasy fans rejoice: Neil Gaiman is writing a script for a six-part TV adaptation of the fantasy novel he co-wrote with the late, great Terry Pratchett, Good Omens. And according to his blog, he’s “about 72% of the way through.” The news that Gaiman would write the adaptation was announced last week at a memorial event for Pratchett in London.
Although Good Omens, which was originally published in 1990 and was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, was once adapted for a BBC radio series, it has never appeared onscreen. In the early 2000s, a film adaptation — rumored to be directed by Terry Gilliam and star Robin Williams and Johnny Depp — was reportedly in the works, but it didn’t materialize.
As the Independent reports, Gaiman’s decision to write the Good Omens script was a difficult one, since he and Pratchett initially agreed to “only work on Good Omens things together.” But, before he died, Pratchett gave Gaiman his blessing to adapt the novel by himself. After hearing that Gaiman would go ahead with the adaptation, Pratchett wrote to Gaiman to express his approval:
“I would very much like this to happen, and I know, Neil, that you’re very very busy, but no one else could ever do it with the passion that we share for the old girl. I wish I could be more involved and I will help in any way I can.”
Gaiman, who’s been working on the script for about a year now, writes that he often wishes his friend and co-author Pratchett, who died in March of 2015, was still here to collaborate with him. When he comes up with something “clever or funny that’s new,” Gaiman says, he wants to “call him up and read it to him, and make him laugh or hear him point out something I’d missed.”
