Category: Books

Dan Harmon is bringing Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan to TV

If he hadn’t recently confirmed the Rick And Morty season three premiere, the news that Dan Harmon‘s developing another TV series might have had led to a fan uprising (or, more likely, just angry tweets). Instead, we can feel excited and/or cautiously optimistic about the fact that Harmon’s adapting Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens Of Titan for Universal Cable Productions. According to CinemaBlend, Harmon is working with longtime 24 (and its offshoots) producer Evan Katz on the series, which is based on Vonnegut’s sci-fi novel from 1959. The Sirens Of Titan adaptation hasn’t landed a network yet, but NBC and USA are in the running.

The series will center on Malachi Constant, the richest man in the U.S., who’s used his “divine” luck to build his father’s fortune. But that money can’t shield him from a brewing war between Mars and Earth. Soon, Malachi’s on an interplanetary journey with another really rich guy, trying to determine whether or not free will exists. It’s typically heady Vonnegut material, an oeuvre which Harmon has cited as an influence on his own interpretation of sci-fi. But even if Harmon weren’t a Vonnegut fan, that storyline would still lend itself well to his talents—we’ve seen what he can do with an initially reluctant explorer and a scheming elder.

The Sirens of Titan

Neil Gaiman’s Very Necessary Apocalypse Comedy Good Omens Is Coming to Amazon

In 2018, even angels and devils will cross party lines to prevent the coming of the End Times—on the small screen, at least. In an apropos bit of news, Amazon announced today that author Neil Gaiman will be adapting his novel Good Omens into a “comedic apocalyptic” miniseries, set to be released on Prime Video next year.

Good Omens, beloved by generations of fantasy readers, tells the story of humanity’s last bumbling steps towards the Apocalypse, as angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley try to procrastinate towards the end of the world—turns out, life on Earth is pretty comfortable for the manifestations of Good and Evil. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse include War, a female war correspondent, and Famine, a diet book author. And due to a mix-up at the county hospital, Adam Young, the Antichrist, grows up in a quiet British town. The comedy may have seemed far-fetched when Gaiman co-wrote it with Terry Pratchett in 1990, but considering tomorrow’s inauguration of a one-time reality TV star to the highest office in the land, the apocalypse comedy of Good Omens seems more like parody than fantasy.

Gaiman will write the script for the six-part limited comedy series for Amazon and the BBC, and will also serve as showrunner. Today’s news promises a good couple of years for Gaiman fans: In addition to Good Omens in 2018, an adaptation of his 2001 novel American Gods is set to premiere on Starz in April.

It might be the adaptation that the world needs by 2018—until then, we’ll have to wait and see if the Amazon series was foretold by that 17th century classic, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett