Welcome back Studio Coffee Folks! Today we’ll take a look at the recently announced Discworld adaptation, a new Hellraiser series from HBO and news on a Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul sci-fi thriller.
HBO pins down a Hellraiser series
Hellraiser is being picked up as a series by HBO in a recent agreement with Halloween producer David Gordon Green set to direct the pilot as well as a few other initial episodes. Writing team Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Daredevil, Heroes) and Michael Dougherty (X-Men United, Godzilla: King of Monsters) are planning to take the already established mythology of the Hellraiser universe and use that to elevate and continue the franchise. Deadline reports explicitly that it isn’t a remake, but is much more similar to the upcoming Candyman movie, which builds on prior events. The rights package has been put together since last June with Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart novella as a basis. HBO’s Hellraiser will also be the first ever small screen debut for the notorious Pinhead.
Dual brings together Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul
Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillan is set to team up with Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul the sci-fi thriller, Dual. They’re joined by Jesse Eisenberg, Martha Kelly, and Beulah Koale.
Gillan will pull dual roles for Dual – she’s a terminally ill woman who decides to clone herself to ease her friends’ and family’s mourning and, of course, the clone herself. Things go awry when she manages to overcome the disease and survive, and all attempts to decommission the clone are thwarted, which results in a court-mandated duel (get it?) to the death. Riley Stearns (The Art of Self-Defense) will be writing the script and producing with XYZ Films, per THR.
Adults author Emma Jane Unsworth set to adapt her novel for TV
Emma Jane Unsworth has made a deal with Playground and wiip to adapt her own novel, Adults, for television. The book is her 2014 follow-up to Animals, which was recently adapted into a film that debuted at Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and is directed by Sophie Hyde. Adults follows Jenny McLaine, a thirty-five year-old with a house, a job writing for a magazine and a great friend group – but things flip quickly when her wealthy boyfriend leaves her, her best friend Kelly tries to cut ties between them, and she becomes obsessed with comparing herself with other women with awesome lives and dream careers.
Discworld balances a TV adaptation with Pratchett’s daughter on board
Terry Pratchett’s beloved Discworld novels (which number in the 40’s) is officially set for a TV adaptation. The late author’s production company Narrativia signed an exclusive deal with Endeavor Content to produce the show with Brit banner Motive Pictures. The group says its goal is to create a “truly authentic” screen adaptation with Pratchett’s daughter, Rhianna, currently acting as co-director of Narrativia, per Variety. Although it hasn’t been announced which of the many Discworld novels are first on the list for adaptation, the world in which the books take place is a flat planet, balanced by four elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle. Another of Pratchett’s novels, Good Omens was also adapted for TV recently with the help of co-writer Neil Gaiman for Amazon Prime and BBC.
Dreamworks’ and Netflix’s Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts drops a season 2 trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Imw-elWu5w
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is heading back to Netflix for season 2 with a new trailer. The DreamWorks animated series is colorful, filled with monsters and action-packed. Kipo (Karen Fukuhara) is a human who becomes estranged from her underground community and ends up paired with a team of fighters including a wolf, a bug and a DJ, all trying to return to their homes. In the second season, the friends are pitted against a mind-controlling villain and newly-discovered transformation powers. The story continues on June 12 – anyone who’s not caught up can join in on the Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts watch parties, which take place on Twitter with the writing team every Saturday.
There’s also another Discworld TV series coming, BBC’s The Watch. The release was planned for this year, but given current circumstances, who knows when anything will get released?
FYI, Good Omens isn’t “another of Pratchett’s series”; it’s one book.
I’ve updated the wording to “novels.”
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