Big news for fans of the man who created ‘The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy‘, as Douglas Adams’ ‘Dirk Gently’ series is coming to the small screen! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, IDW in their partnership with Circle of Confusion have optioned the rights to release the supernatural detective Dirk Gently upon the unsuspecting world in his own series! The companies have joined forces with Ideate Media to fund the series and have tapped rising writing superstar Max Landis (‘Chronicle‘,’Frankenstein‘) to write the pilot and be on board as the executive producer for the show.
The series debuted in 1987 with the graphic novel ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ and was followed up in 1988 with ‘The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul’. Sadly Adams passed away before he could finish his endcap to the trilogy, ‘The Salmon of Doubt’ which was released incomplete with other unpublished works posthumous. In the two books, we follow Dirk Gentley who is a detective that solves cases dealing with the supernatural. Adams described the first book as a “thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic”. Dirk Gently (born Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) tends to have a very creative investigative style which can include such things as hanging out on a beach in the Bahamas for three weeks as part of his investigations.
According to Landis:
“Alongside the obvious yada yada, I’m a lifelong fan, Long Dark Teatime of The Soul (the second Dirk Gently novel) is one of the best books ever. Douglas Adams is a visionary who forever changed the way science fiction is written and talked about and even thought about and even the way real actual science is thought about and without whom our culture would be noticeably different for the worse. I’d also just like to say holy crap, it’s Dirk Gently. This is any writer’s ultimate project, and in the current TV space, it fits ridiculously well. Imagine a playground where you could come with any mystery, no matter how improbable, convoluted or totally insane and then, simply by finding the right connections, you could tie it all down to one man, one private eye. If you’re familiar with the property, you know: there’s no freaking rules. Ancient gods? Sure. Larceny and petty crimes? Of course. Extra-dimensional aliens? I mean, probably; as long as you can make it funny, Dirk’s on the case. This is a dream project of mine, no joke, and I absolutely positively couldn’t be happier.”
That absolutely sounds like Landis has hit a project that isn’t just going to be fun, but one that he’s passionate about as well. This is a show that if done right, could last quite some time and hit on all of the high points on both science fiction and humor. I’m just curious as to what network they are going to end up launching it on.
Not only will we be seeing Dirk on the small screen, but part of the deal has IDW and Ideate developing a series of Dirk Gently comic books to be released next Spring.
I, for one, couldn’t be happier!
What do you think about this new set of expansions to Adams’ ‘Dirk Gently’ universe? Are you happy to hear we’ll be getting more of the character? Share your thoughts below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
