HBO have announced that they will screen a new adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, from Doctor Who and Sherlock scribe, Steven Moffat.
The channel has put in a straight-to-series order and we expect production to begin later this year. Moffat, who recently vacated his post as Doctor Who showrunner, will pen the scripts and serve as an executive producer alongside regular collaborators Sue Vertue and Brian Minchin.
The Time Traveler’s Wife was adapted into a film in 2009, starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, though it was not a critical success. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman previously attempted to bring Niffenegger’s novel to the small screen as an ABC TV adaptation but it never came to fruition.
On the project, Moffat had this to say:
“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 realised 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.”
We anticipate The Time Traveler’s Wife will bow in 2019, and we’ll be sure to bring you any updates as we get them.