Deadline: Simon Pegg & Nick Frost’s Stolen Picture To Adapt Ben Aaronovitch’s Epic Fantasy Drama ‘Rivers of London’
Stolen Picture, the production company set up by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, is to adapt Ben Aaronovitch’s epic fantasy drama Rivers of London.
The Rivers of London series follows Peter Grant, no relation to the infamous Led Zeppelin manager, an ordinary police constable turned magician’s apprentice as he solves crimes across the British capital with a blend of urban fantasy, mystery thriller and fantasy caper. The franchise has sold over 2.5M copies worldwide.
The first book, which is known as Midnight Riot in the U.S., sees Grant as he attempts to solve a puzzling murder with information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. He then works with Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. After, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Grant 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.
Frost told Deadline that he first read the book on holiday years ago. “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,” he said. “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.”
