Working Title TV Adapting ‘The Luminaries’ for BBC

Working Title Television is set to produce the BBC series The Luminaries, an adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s award-winning novel.

Catton will adapt her book, which won the 2013 Man Booker Prize (she was its youngest ever recipient), into the six-part project for BBC Two.

Set in the 19th century on the “Wild West Coast” of New Zealand’s South Island in the boom years of the 1860s gold rush, The Luminaries tells an epic story of love, murder and revenge as men and women traveled across the world to make their fortunes.

“I feel absurdly lucky to be working with both the BBC and Working Title, whose work I have loved and learned from all my life,” said Catton of her first TV drama. “Learning to write for television has been a bit like learning a new musical instrument: the melody is more or less the same, but absolutely everything else is different. I’m having enormous fun, learning every day and just so excited to see the world of the novel created in the flesh.”

The Luminaries marks Andrew Woodhead’s first project as managing director of Working Title Television, having developed the series independently with Catton before his appointment earlier this year.

The series will be executive produced by Catton, Woodhead, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for Working Title and Lucy Richer for the BBC. Filming will begin in 2017 and take place in and around New Zealand.

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