Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds will soon be arriving to predict doom on STARZ! The novel follows Miriam Black, a young runaway who has the horrible/useful ability to see how and when people will die when she touches them. The show will be executive produced by John Shiban, and according to Deadline, “has set up a writers room, often a pre-cursor to a series pickup at the pay cable network.”
Shiban has solid weird fiction credentials. He began his career as a staff writer on Fox’s The X-Files (where he wrote episodes including “Memento Mori” and “Monday”) before becoming executive producer on the show and sharing a writing and best drama series Emmy nomination. He was also a producer on Supernatural, as well as working on Torchwood’s “Miracle Day” series. He was a consulting producer on Breaking Bad, receiving a WGA Award nomination for the episode “Phoenix.” He most recently served as showrunner for Hell On Wheels.
The show has gotten a vote of confidence from the author, who says, “what they’ve put together so far is an amazing—and appropriately faithful—adaptation of the book. They grok Miriam.” We can’t wait to see what STARZ does with Wendig’s story!
Sometimes you read a book and you love it so much you think “someone needs to make a movie or TV show out of it.” But then you actually think about it and realise that it’s probably an impossible task (I’m looking at you Ender’s Game).
This is not one of those. All throughout reading this book I thought “man, this would kick all kinds of ass as a TV series.” I can’t wait to see it.