There was an interesting article on the Culturess web site a while back, entitled Book Series Could Benefit More From Television Adaptations (as opposed to movie adaptations). The thrust of the article was that lengthy book series, like Harry Potter or Cirque Du Freak (I've heard of the latter series, but must have missed out on those Harry... was it Blotter??? books!) might benefit more from a TV adaptation than a movie adaptation, as so much has to be excised from the novels to fit into a movie's much more limited run time.

This is certainly a view that I would for the most part agree with. When we sold the rights to Cirque Du Freak back around the turn of the century, it was always intended to be a movie adaptation. TV was still largely the poorer cousin of the cinematic world back then. Budgets were much bigger for movies, and they could do far more with a fantastical story than their counterparts in the small screen world. But TV has evolved incredibly over the past two centuries -- not least the fact that with streaming, a lot of people now don't want "TV shows" on a TV at all -- and a lot of my favourite lengthy storylines over the last decade have been served up as TV shows. There's still certainly a place for cinema -- I LOVE movies and going to the cinema -- but with a long, twisting story like the one I told in The Saga Of Darren Shan or The Demonata or Zom-B... yeah, TV seems like a more natural fit these days.

As many of you will already be aware, Zom-B was optioned a few years ago, though nothing firm has come of that yet. I've yet to find any firm brave or imaginative enough to tackle The Demonata (though I do think that will happen one day -- I just hope it isn't years after I'm dead!), and Archibald Lox must be an extreme long shot, given that it's self-published (but never say never!)... but there's hope, as I've hinted a few times recently, on the Cirque Du Freak front. I can't say any more than that just yet (soon!! I promise!!), but if an adaptation does come to pass, it's looking ever likelier that it will be made for the small screen, not for cinemas. Which is probably (hopefully) for the best. Although, if by some chance it DOES get adapted for cinema again, instead of for TV, I'll deny I ever made that previous statement!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Anyway, the Culturess article is a neat, snappy look at the issue, and you can check it out here: https://culturess.com/2021/09/14/book-series-tv-adaptations/