For those of you who loved the small-screen adaption of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, I’m super excited to share with you that the streaming service Showtime has just tapped Gaiman to produce a miniseries of Gormenghast!
Gaiman, who has also been involved with television adaptions of Sandman and American Gods, will be joined in the project by Toby Whithouse (Being Human) and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), so there’s some pretty serious talent being lined up for the project.
For those who may not be familiar with the series, Gormenghast is a trilogy of gothic fantasy books written by Mervyn Peake in the late 1940s and early 1950s, revolving around the characters living in the titanic, crumbling city-castle of the same name. Every waking minute for the castle’s inhabitants revolves around adherence to half-forgotten ceremonies and traditions, but the centuries-old rhythms of the castle upset by the actions of two people.
The first is the young lord Titus Groan, destined to one day sit at the center of the meaningless rituals, and who wants nothing more than to escape the prison that awaits him. The second is one of my all-time favorite literary villains, Steerpike the kitchen boy, who seeks to escape his appointed place through a ruthless, inexorable climb to power.
I shouldn’t like this story – it goes against all the Good Writing Matters rules I’ve explored on this website. Gormenghast is an active setting, sure, but its origins are never really explored. Most of the characters have very little in the way of motivations and backgrounds, and the text itself is written almost entirely as “tell, don’t show” rather than the other way around. And yet…
And yet Peake writes so earnestly, with such beautiful, poetic description, and with such a storyteller’s rhythm that I was drawn in from the first page. A large part of this is because his characters, while simple, as wonderfully depicted, with all of them having their chance to leap off the page and grab your attention.
(Personal favorite scene – Bellgrove the ancient, pompous headmaster, being so unsure of how to punish the rebellious Titus Groan after the boy’s escape attempt that they end up lying on the floor together playing marbles).
Some of us might remember BBC’s attempt at a television adaption in the 2000s, which was never an overwhelming success but still managed to present the trials of young Titus. I rather liked this adaption, it had kind a garish, twisted Alice in Wonderland feel to everything, but I think it never really captured the brooding colossal darkness of the castle itself.
Gaiman has high hopes for his adaption, saying of the project on Deadline that “We are now in a world where you can put the impossible on screen and with Gormenghast, you’re not just dealing with a castle the size of a city but dealing with these incredibly glorious and memorable people.”
Here’s hoping they keep the focus on the characters and try not to stray too far from the original story. Gormenghast has been one of my favorites for years now, and a lot of the success of this adaption will rely on who they tap on the shoulder to play the story’s sly, relentless villain. My vote would be Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones), a deeply talented actor who could bring this sympathetic antagonist to life.
If you have any hopes for the series, please share below!
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