Television adaptation is a wacky game; so many books are optioned, never to see the glowing light of a TV screen. In 2019, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were set to adapt Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London into a series, but the project never came to fruition. Now, though, it has another shot. Variety reports that Pure Fiction Television and Unnecessary Logo—a production company Aaronovitch himself has created—is set to adapt the series. And they’re not stopping with the nine novels; Variety notes “the deal includes Aaronovitch’s short stories, novellas, and graphic novels.”
The series is about Peter Grant, a young London police officer who has an encounter with a ghost—and then finds himself recruited into a police division that deals with the supernatural. The summary of the first book (called Rivers of London in the UK and Midnight Riot in the US) explains:
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.
No details have been reported about who will write, direct, or showrun the adaptation, and no network is attached—yet.
