MovieChat Forums > Neverwhere (1996) Discussion > The series came first.

The series came first.

posted 17 years ago by PsychicSunny
19 replies | jump to latest

I just wanted to comment because I think a lot of people here are under the impression that the series is based on the (excellent) novel by Neil Gaiman. Actually, the television series came first. The novel was written as a sort of "director's cut". There were some scenes that couldn't be filmed the way he wanted because of the budget, scenes that were cut because of time, etc, and Mr. Gaiman wanted to be able to include those in the story. So he wrote the novel. So strictly speaking, the novel is an adaptation of the show, and not the other way around.

[–] sapunjis 17 years ago

Yes, I was reading through the posts here and it appeared many people did not know this. But since you've mentioned it, I don't need to. :)

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] weird_beard 14 years ago

Because your first novel is your first novel regardless of what, if anything, it's based on.

Actually, I'm more irked that they apparently don't count Good Omens.

[–] sheilalougreene 17 years ago

Ummm...no.
I read Neverwhere as an uncorrected proof almost a decade ago.

[–] kawnqra 17 years ago

http://darkecho.com/darkecho/pdf/gaiman.pdf

I wrote Neverwhere from my TV scripts.

www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/06/neil-ive-just-been-talking-to-my.asp

...I'm very fond of bits of episodes 2 and 3, really like episodes 4 and 5, and was disappointed by the way the very end of episode 6 was cut and edited. Which was the main reason I wrote Neverwhere the novel. It was the "this is what I meant".

To twinsoniclab: After writing the mini-series and then the book, Gaiman wrote a movie screenplay that was never filmed.

[–] Emimoimes 17 years ago

With Hollywood on the look out for good scripts for movies, wouldn't it be interesting to pick the novel version up and make it into a big budget movie after all - including all the things that initially had to be left out?

If a director like Terry Gilliam worked on this, it could turn out very interesting... but well, just a thought.

[–] kawnqra 17 years ago

Gaiman finished a script that was optioned by The Jim Henson Company a few years ago. Since then, I've seen rumors on the interweb about it going into production, the most promising of which was an (alleged) comment made by (I think) Lisa Henson during a panel discussion in 2005 (possibly). So, take it with a grain of salt.

I agree that Terry Gilliam would be a good fit, but I'd like to see his take on just about anything, even a Paris Hilton vehicle or an Uwe Boll video game adaptation. I probably wouldn't like either of those, but I'd check them out. Gilliam was actually set to work on another Gaiman novel (Good Omens), but that also seems to be stuck in development.

[–] Fastfwrd 17 years ago

Well I've e-mailed Neil and I'm waiting for a reply in regards to Jim Henson productions picking up the screenplay for Neverwhere, if I get a reply I'll let you guys know, I also asked about a movie for American Gods so let's cross our fingers :)

[–] trigger99 17 years ago

Since Hollywood just ruined Hitchhikers Guide a couple of years ago, i hope they dont go near this personally.
(i see this as very much like being written in the style of Douglas Adams)

[–] LiquidDrainerFilms 15 years ago

I know this is about a year late, but just had to say...

There is absolutely no correlation between Hollywood sort of screwing up Hitchhiker's Guide and assuming that they would screw up Neverwhere (although I didn't think Hitchhiker's Guide was as awful as some did- a weak adaptation, to be sure, but redeemed by some inspired moments and the dead-on comic casting of Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy).

Hitchhiker's Guide is a comedy, and British and (mainstream) American comedy is just very different. They tried to make Hitchhiker's Guide appeal to both British and American comedic sensibilities, but since they tried to have it both ways it just ended up feeling like a diluted version of the original, and the British humor and American humor clashed.

Neverwhere, while it does have a great sense of humor, is above all else a fantasy, not a comedy. There's no reason to think that it would be affected in the same way that Hitchhiker's was. Hollywood is perfectly capable of pulling off well-done fantasy (just look at the troll market scene is Hellboy II- doesn't that remind you a little of what a great rendition of the Floating Market would look like?), and assuming that they kept true to the book (and if they used Gaiman's script, then they wouldn't have much of a choice but to keep his sense of humor) then I don't see how they could screw it up.

Don't just assume that since Hollywood messed up one British-novel-to-film adaptation, they'd mess up all of them.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Kiso 14 years ago

There's no comparison between Gaiman and Adams, except for their imaginations being somewhat extraordinary. I like them both but they are not similar.

Good point about Hollywood demolishing good original material when the get hold of it. Take a look at Death at a Funeral, as another example.

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

[–] gsoropos 14 years ago

"Ummm...no.
I read Neverwhere as an uncorrected proof almost a decade ago."

lol, lying on the net is always going to make you look like a fool innit?

[–] matthewogden67 14 years ago

Plus given that the original posting was in Dec 2006 and the original series aired in 1996 she may just well have seen the unproofed version of the book that came out of the series anyway... if "almost a decade ago" can equate to 8-10 years..

[–] tomgjcromwell 13 years ago

Possibly while the series was in post-production.

[–] tenement-funster 13 years ago

The book came out very, very quickly. I suspect that the adaptation was being worked on during filming, or as you say, during post-production. Years later there was an "author's preferred edition" published, so it's possible that Neil Gaiman felt that he'd rushed the original version too much, and decided he wanted to clean it up a little.

So yes, series first, but the book did come along very soon after.

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[–] welcometotsavo 11 years ago

Actually...

Having been one of those people who was around when the series was originally aired, I can point out that the series and the original version of the novel were issued at pretty much the same time - as soon as the show had finished airing the VHS and novel were released.

The novel has since appeared in two different versions, with the most recent being considered the definitive version, or "director's cut".

Welcome To Tsavo... many suffer, few survive.

[–] purple_gromit 10 years ago

Yep, novel was released at the same time as the tv show aired.

[–] ToHelenBackAgain 10 years ago

Whaddya know... a person can learn the damnedest things on IMDb. Even sometimes years after they were posted!

I had no idea of this, though it's one of my favorite books, and one that I often re-read.

Also, good call by Gaiman, there. I'm watching the miniseries now and finding it a bit disappointing. Pretty good, but in some ways missing the mark, where the novel hits it every time.

I'm gonna set fire to his car to punish him for my mistake.