“I married a time traveler. It’s complicated,” says Clare (Game of Thrones‘ Rose Leslie) at the end of the first teaser for HBO’s The Time Traveler’s Wife. It’s a bit of an understatement: Her husband, Henry (Divergent‘s Theo James), just slips out of time sometimes, leaving the water running and a pile of clothes on the floor.
In the hands of Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, Sherlock), Audrey Niffenegger’s novel is getting the prestige TV treatment, complete with swoony music and one shot that will either charm or annoy Doctor Who fans: Henry visiting a young version of his redheaded future wife. I can’t tell you if this is in the book or not, but I can tell you it sure made me think of Amy Pond.
Before developing this adaptation, Moffat had been a fan of The Time Traveler’s Wife for years; he’s said that he wrote Doctor Who‘s “The Girl in the Fireplace” in response to the novel. The book’s summary says:
A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.
The trailer is full of passing moments, Clare looking pensive while she and Henry hug, and, naturally, a naked Theo James (Henry takes nothing with him when he travels). HBO has only given a release month for this one so far; the show will premiere in May.
