Neil Gaiman Adapting Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens
Say what you like about Mr. Pratchett, but he’s nothing if not persistent! There had been talk of Neil Gaiman adapting his friend’s novel Good Omens before, but he’d always said he wouldn’t do it without Pratchett to co-write.
However, it seems Neil changed his mind after getting a posthumous letter from Terry, who died from Alzheimer’s last year, requesting Gaiman write the adaptation with his blessing. According to Gaiman “At that point, I think I said, ‘You bastard, yes…’” Well it is difficult to argue with a request from Pratchett, especially when he can’t answer back!
There have been a several attempts to adapt ‘Good Omens’ to screen before, with 2 pythons (Gilliam & Jones) both having taken a crack at it, but it does seem like it might actually come to fruition this time around. There has previously been a successful audio adaptation in 2014 of the novel by Radio 4, but this would be the first time it has been put up on-screen.
The ‘Good Omens’ announcement was made at a memorial event for Terry Pratchett yesterday evening, where they also confirmed Pirates of the Caribbean & Shrek scribe Terry Rossio was adapting a feature-length script of Pratchett’s Discworld novel Mort.
The Good Omens adaptation will be a tv series of 6 episodes. No news on where it will air, but Sky 1 has to be a safe bet given their history with adaptations of Pratchett novels.
