Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: Comics, dirk gently, dirk gently's holistic detective agency, douglas adams, idw, tv

IDW To Create US TV And Comic Book Adaptations Of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Detective Agency

 IDW Entertainment and Ideate Media announced they have optioned the right to turn the  Douglas Adams novels Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and its sequel The Long Teatime Of The Soul into a TV show and a line of comics.

The novels, written in the eighties by the late HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams are among my favourites. And were recently adapted by the BBC as both radio and TV versions, the latter written by Misfits showrunner Howard Overman and starring Episodes' Stephen Mangan,Watching Ellie's Darren Boyd and Friends' Helen Baxendale.

This version however will written by Chronicle's Max Landis.

So, yeah, I love these books. I thought the radio adaptation was great and the BBC TV version pretty nifty (though it did seem to overexaggerate iPhone battery life by a number of decades)

And now… an American version. I will remain open minded, as to how they may adapt the story of a scholarly genius-turned private detective, who finds is world interrupted by gods, aliens, time travel, the music industry, robots and bathroom-filling horses while trying to find a missing cat who may or may not exist.

The PR quotes Landis thinking similar thoughts.

"Alongside the obvious yada yada I'm a lifelong fan, Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul (the second Dirk Gently novel) is one of the best books ever. Douglas Adams is a visionary who forever changed the way science fiction is written and talked about and even thought about and even the way real actual science is thought about and without whom our culture would be noticeably different for the worse, I'd also just like to say holy crap, it's Dirk Gently. This is any writer's ultimate project, and in the current TV space, it fits ridiculously well. Imagine a playground where you could come with any mystery, no matter how improbable, convoluted, or totally insane and then, simply by finding the right connections, you could tie it all down to one man, one private eye. If you're familiar with the property, you know: there's no freaking rules. Ancient gods? Sure. Larceny and petty crimes? Of course. Extra-dimensional aliens? I mean, probably; as long as you can make it funny, Dirk's on the case. This is a dream project of mine, no joke, and I absolutely positively couldn't be happier."

Don't fuck it up, Landis. Here are the producer credits.

Ted Adams and David Ozer from IDW Entertainment, Arvind Ethan David and Zainir Aminullah of Ideate, and David Alpert and Rick Jacobs from Circle of Confusion (The Walking Dead) will serve as executive producers.

And they try to win me over by saying,

Arvind Ethan David, Head of Production and Development at Ideate Media, was a friend and protégé of Douglas Adams and brokered the deal with the estate. He commented: "As a student at Oxford, I directed and co-wrote a theatre adaptation of Dirk Gently. To my amazement, Douglas himself came to see the show – and he liked it and helped launch my career. Almost 20 years later, to return to Dirk, and to add the mad genius of Max Landis to the mad genius of Douglas Adams, is a dream come true and proof of what Douglas, (and Dirk), would describe as 'the fundamental interconnectedness of all things'".

And almost as a footnote….

In addition to the television series, IDW Publishing & Ideate Media will develop a series of Dirk Gently comic books for release next spring.

Is it too soon for me to pitch?

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!