Just because Steven Moffat left ‘Doctor Who’ behind doesn’t mean he’s done dabbling in time streams. For his next project, Moffat is adapting Audrey Niffenegger’s novel ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ as an ongoing series for HBO.
As Moffat expressed:
“I read Audrey Niffenegger’s ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ many years ago, and I fell in love with it. In fact, I wrote a ‘Doctor Who’ episode called ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ as a direct response to it. When, in her next novel, Audrey had a character watching that very episode, I realized she was probably on to me. All these years later, the chance to adapt the novel itself, is a dream come true. The brave new world of long-form television is now ready for this kind of depth and complexity. It’s a story of happy ever after — but not necessarily in that order.”
HBO won a bidding war with various other outlets who were also seeking to acquire the rights to bring Niffenegger’s book to television. Following the merger between HBO’s parent company Time Warner and AT&T, HBO has been ordered to increase its slate of original series, what with ‘Game of Thrones’ ending and ‘Westworld’ on hiatus. The desire is to see HBO hold its own against the ever-growing presence of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.
Though Moffat is a prolific creator, this will be his first project made directly for an American audience. In addition to ‘Doctor Who’, Moffat shepherded spin-off ‘Class’, fellow buzzy BBC hit ‘Sherlock’ and the sitcom ‘Coupling’ among others. Moffat will write the pilot and serve as executive producer through his company Hartswood Films, which he co-runs with his wife Sue Vertue, who is also an EP on ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. Warner Bros. Television will co-produce with Hartswood Films, and Brian Minchin will also serve as EP, with Moffat and Vertue.
HBO’s programming president Casey Bloys said:
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Steven Moffat, Hartswood and WBTV on ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. Steven’s passion is evident in every project he’s written and we are certain that his love and respect for this mesmerizing and textured novel will make it a quintessential HBO series.”
Hartswood Films issued a statement saying:
“HBO is the perfect home to tell this incredible story with all the scale and space it needs, and we’re delighted to be working with Warner Bros. to bring Steven’s thrilling vision of the novel to life.”
‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ was adapted as a feature film in 2009, directed by Robert Schwentke, starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana.
HBO has just announced their series, so production hasn’t been scheduled and no casting has been done, so there’s no telling when ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ will hit TV screens. Even at this early stage, there are already some that are drawing comparisons to Starz’s ‘Outlander’ which is also a love story that revolves around time travel.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter