Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the folks behind Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, a.k.a. the Cornetto trilogy, are taking on another series: Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London, an urban fantasy procedural in which aspiring detective Peter Grant finds himself working for The Folly, Scotland Yard’s department of supernatural beings. Frost and Pegg’s production company Stolen Picture will adapt the first book in the Peter Grant series for television (with Sony Pictures Television), with Aaronovitch also serving as an executive producer.
“Nick Frost and Simon Pegg asked me if I wanted to make Rivers of London with them—you think I was going to say no?” Aaronovitch said in the official press release. “Stolen Picture have a reputation for making creator-led TV with the minimum of corporate bollocks and the maximum of fun. It’s an opportunity I would be bonkers to say no to.”
Frost told Deadline: “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.”
“This era we’re in now, TV has suddenly evolved into something far more cinematic, where you can tell stories and elaborate,” Pegg said. “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.”
More about the novel, known as Midnight Riot in the U.S.:
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter 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.
Rivers of London/Midnight Riot will make up the first season, which will be about 8-10 episodes. Future seasons might combine books. Aaronovitch shared his excitement for being so involved in the adaptation, especially where the story might branch off from the source material: “Nobody knows this world better than me; I can make stuff up that’s canon.”
I have been waiting so long for someone to pick this up and dramatize it. It could be an amazing series!
I’m just going to sit here and make happy noises for the rest of the day. This series is SO MUCH FUN.
Great news! I wonder if Trevor Noah has any acting ambitions; I can see him as Peter (with James D’Arcy as Nightingale.)
Especially with Ben’s TV experience, this feels like it has every component necessary to be a fantastic adaptation of one of my favorite series. I can’t wait!
This is going to go well.
Also if people haven’t read the graphic novels … they are totally amazing and well worth tracking down.
That’s great news!
Rivers of London is perfect for a TV series! So excited!
I’ve long thought you could hear Ben’s tv background in the flow of his books, so this seems like a natural next step, and with Simon and Nick involved, I’m in (though, to play the pedantic, while Simon and Nick were both _in_ the Cornetto trilogy, you would have to say it was Simon and Edgar Wright who were _behind_ it).
Any info on what platforms will carry this in the UK and the US?
I think it was a recommendation from Charlie Stross that made me start reading this series, and I’ve read all of them in about a year I think. Really good fun books, about an even split of police procedural and strange magic stuff, and very well balanced.
As for a TV adaptation, I’ll not start getting my hopes up until I see a trailer.
@3 Trevor Noah does look like the Perter Grant in my head, but he’ll have to work on his London accent first…
I have even less of an excuse for not reading this now.
I’ve long thought you could hear Ben’s tv background in the flow of his books, so this seems like a natural next step
Definitely – each book’s plot is self-contained and wraps up at the end, but you’ve got the arc story of the Faceless Man running through more or less all of them. It’s a very TV way of doing things. 8-10 episodes seems a lot for Rivers of London – it’s not a long book. Maybe they’ll do half-hour episodes.
(Trevor Noah is 35. Peter Grant is a probationary PC at the start of the series; he’s 22-23. Trevor Noah is also not an actor, not English and cannot do an English accent to save his life. I know Americans are really, really into race, and that Trevor Noah is one of the only two mixed-race men you’ve ever heard of, and well done for at least not suggesting casting Obama, but I kind of think these things should also be relevant considerations.)
@12 ajay
Re: Noah – Thank goodness somebody’s said this. The best person to play Peter is probably going to be some 23-26 year old who had had some solid supporting roles in a soap, ongoing series, or theatre, that 99% of people don’t know than name of – but if we’re from the UK or Commonwealth we might recognise them once the parts they’ve played are mentioned (or looked up on IMDB).
The same should probably be said for Beverley, May, and Guleed. All the senior police will be filled by good character actors, some of whom will fit the “I know the face..” level of awareness. Now, who is a good fit for Nightingale?
@13
I’m stuck on Nightingale, but I’d love them to use some well known faces even as cameos for the coppers, like make Adrian Dunbar into the chief or Philip Glenister as Seawoll.
Matthew Goode for Nightingale?
Jacob Anderson for Peter Grant!
I’m going to get that printed on a t-shirt.