Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are Teaming Up To Adapt The Fantasy Drama RIVERS OF LONDON as a Series
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are teaming up again to adapt Ben Aaronovitch’s epic fantasy drama Rivers of London as a TV series. Aaronovitch and Stolen Picture are also involved bringing the series to life.
The Rivers of London book series follows a character name Peter Grant, “an ordinary police constable turned magician’s apprentice as he solves crimes across the British capital with a blend of urban fantasy, mystery thriller and fantasy caper.”
I’ve never read this book series, but it actually sounds incredibly cool! I love the concept of it and with Pegg and Frost on board to bring it to life, it could make for an incredible show!
The first book in the series is called Midnight Riot in the U.S., the story “sees Grant as he attempts to solve a puzzling murder with information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. He then works with Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. After, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Grant is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.”
While talking to Deadline, Frost revealed that he read the book years ago, and explained:
“Suddenly we were in a position where I said ‘there’s this book that I loved’ and it became available, more or less. I was chuffed to bits that I could get the rights to make it into a TV show. Everyone wants to potentially find the next Game of Thrones and the chance to turn Rivers of London into an eight-hour movie and hopefully find someone who will financially back that is a real draw.”
Pegg added that, “TV has entered an era where sprawling book series such as Rivers of London can now be adapted faithfully. This era we’re in now, TV has suddenly evolved into something far more cinematic, where you can tell stories and elaborate. A lot of books that are made into film are criticized for not being as good as the book, because they are contracted into something more simplistic. But what TV offers us now, which is a cinematic playing field, you can tell these stories with scope and get into creative detail.”
The author of the book revealed that production companies have been trying to adapt his material for years, but now the right team has come on board to make it happen.
“I’ve worked in television before so I was wary of sticking my head back into that lion’s den. It was a difficult thing to sell so that it wouldn’t get horribly butchered, and television up to now has had a lot of difficulties. [But] how could I say no [to Pegg and Frost]? I feel confident on several levels. I’m working with creators and I know these people don’t like bollocks. There will be creative conflicts and where external forces force us to make compromises but I know that the starting point is that we won’t make those compromises unless we have to. [Simon and Nick] are tremendous nerds and I don’t have to explain things to do them about magic, they just get it. we have a common language, which we don’t have in a lot of TV companies.”
It’s explained that Aaronovitch will be heavily involved with the creation of the series. Obviously, no one knows this world better than him, and Pegg went on to say, “Often as a writer, you are the absolute bottom of the food chain and treated like scum. As a writer, I understand what it’s like for someone to use you as a springboard rather than use your vision and it’s good to have writers involved as producers because they get it and we want to make a faithful adaptation that is a true reflection of the book.”
It sounds like this story is going to get a proper adaptation that fans of the books are going to love. I personally can’t wait to see what Pegg, Frost, and the rest of the creative team end up doing with the series!