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[Boem]

Great, great news. For those who are unfamiliar, the original books were written by Douglas Adams, of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame.

(note: this shot is from the earlier TV adaption, not the one being made now)

The details:

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/bbc...gentlys-holistic-detective-agency-1201674933/

BBC America has given an eight-episode order to an adaptation of the Douglas Adams novel series “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” written by Max Landis.

“Dirk Gently” is a cult-favorite property from the novelist known for his “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series. The series is co-produced by AMC Studios, Ideate Media and comic book publisher IDW Entertainment with Circle of Confusion producing. Exec producers are Landis, Ideate’s Arvind Ethan David and Zainir Aminullah, IDW Entertainment’s Ted Adams and David Ozer and David Alpert and Rick Jacobs from Circle of Confusion.

(...)

The series will follow the surreal adventures of the highly unconventional detective and his reluctant assistant Todd as they navigate one big metaphysical mystery per season.

(...)

Landis, who made his mark as a screenwriter with the 2012 sci-fi thriller “Chronicle,” and David met about seven years ago in Los Angles through mutual friends at Circle of Confusion. When David secured the TV rights to “Dirk Gently,” he knew Landis had the understanding of the character to handle the adaptation. Landis said yes even as he was juggling numerous feature projects.

In his enthusiasm, Landis wrote the pilot on spec for Ideate and he wrote summaries for an additional nine episodes in the first season. “It was only after the fact that they told me I’m supposed to do that in a room with five other writers,” Landis said.

(...)

“Dirk Gently” will also relaunch as a comic book series through IDW Entertainment that David will write.

This is great news. Although a bit less known, I always felt the Dirk Gently books were actually better than Hitchhiker's Guide. Some history: The first book was heavily based on Adams' unfinished Doctor Who story 'Shada', and is probably my favorite book he's written. The book was also adapted as an excellent radio series by the BBC (probably my favorite version of the story), full of cameos from the original Hitchhikers radio series (Adams hinted that the third book, which he sadly couldn't finish before his death, would establish that the books took place in the Hitchhikers universe, with some characters crossing over - an idea this radio series ran with by having, among others, Marvin the paranoid android show up).

It was also adapted for a short-lived BBC4 TV series in 2010, starring Stephen Mangan. It never got much attention on the internet (surprising, given Douglas Adams' reputation among nerds), which was a shame. It didn't quite hit on the insanity of the original books, but I thought it was a very decent effort, and there were quite a few moments that felt like pure Adams brought to life. Mangan made a very decent Dirk as well. I was always bummed out it was cancelled early because there was a lot of promise there.

Not sure about Landis writing it though - trying to recreate Douglas Adams' voice seems extremely tricky for the best writers out there, but we'll see. I'm more than willing to give it a shot.

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

I'll definitely check this out if it airs in Canada. I've only read the one book (didn't even know there were two), but the joke about the sofa getting stuck in the stairwell in a way that was mathematically impossible is a classic in my family.

 

[neoanarch]

Excellent, the mini a few years ago was decent. I just wish they had been brave enough to get a fat Dirk.

written by Max Landis.

Concern rises

 

[Wildschwein]

I like a lot of Landis' writing and I love the Dirk Gently novels, but I can only be cautiously optimistic about how those two things might mesh.

 

[sarcastor]

Already a thread on this

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1167959