BBC To Adapt Fantasy Series Runestaff

The BBC has announced this week that it has purchased the rights to Michael Moorcock’s Runestaff series for a television adaptation.

The fantastic book series will be adapted by screenwriter Steve Thompson, known for Sherlock and Doctor Who, producer John Yorke, of Life on Mars fame and executive producer Richard Stokes who has worked on Broadchurch, and Torchwood, to develop the adaptation.

Moorcock has already spoken out about the deal saying that he is delighted that BBC Studios won the rights to the adaptation and says “I believe the team will do an outstanding job and I’m looking forward to seeing Hawkmoon, Count Brass and Yisselda brought to the screen. This is a perfect time for the series, which seems more relevant today than it did when I originally wrote it. I will be working closely with the writers to develop the stories. I feel like a schoolboy, breathlessly waiting for the first episode to be aired.”

Writer Steve Thompson says the Runestaff novels were the first books that captured his imagination and to work on them is a privilege and a great adventure, finishing with “I feel like I’ve just been handed the keys to the crown jewels of fantasy fiction.”

The Runestaff series spans for novels, The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God’s Amulet, Sword of the Dawn and The Runestaff and tells the story of a resistance against tyranny. The protagonist Hawkmoon sets out on a journey that takes the reader from ghost-cities in the Syrian desert, pirate colonies in the American bayou and to the heart of the Dark Empire itself, the glittering city of Londra and its blood red rivers.

Production on the series hasn’t yet begun so if you feel inspired, you probably have time to read all four novels before it airs!