HBO Orders 'The Time Traveler's Wife' Adaptation from Steven Moffat

HBO has managed to secure an adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife by the British writer and producer Steven Moffat. Moffat is best known for writing the likes of Doctor Who and Sherlock. It has been reported that there was plenty of interest from major outlets such as Amazon, but it was HBO that won the rights.

The series will be written by Moffat and is based on the book of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger. “I read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife many years ago, and I fell in love with it”, said Moffat. “In fact, I wrote a Doctor Who episode called ‘The Girl In The Fireplace’ as a direct response to it. When, in her next novel, Audrey had a character watching that very episode, I realized she was probably on to me. All these years later, the chance to adapt the novel itself, is a dream come true. The brave new world of long form television is now ready for this kind of depth and complexity. It’s a story of happy ever after – but not necessarily in that order.”

As Deadline reports, the show will be produced by Moffat, Sue Vertue and Brian Minchin, who will serve as executive producers via their Hartswood Films, which produces in association with Warner Bros. Television, which owns the rights to the title. A film adaptation was released in 2009 starring Eric Bana and Amy McAdams.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Steven Moffat, Hartswood and WBTV on The Time Traveler’s Wife,” said HBO president of programming Casey Bloys. “Steven’s passion is evident in every project he’s written and we are certain that his love and respect for this mesmerizing and textured novel will make it a quintessential HBO series.”

This is the third project HBO has managed to secure from high profile writers. Despite competition from other outlets, it managed to score JJ Abrams’ Demimonde and Joss Whedon’s The Nevers.

“HBO is the perfect home to tell this incredible story with all the scale and space it needs, and we’re delighted to be working with Warner Bros to bring Steven’s thrilling vision of the novel to life,” Hartswood said in a statement.

The Time Traveler’s Wife tells the story of a man who has a genetic condition which forces him to travel through time. He meets an artist and the two soon fall in love. Despite his difficult condition, the couple engages in a love affair that spans across time.