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Books
Circe: Madeline Miller’s beloved Greek myth retelling is being turned into a TV series
6 years ago
With its feminist themes and thrilling prose, Madeline Miller’s bestselling Circe became the book of the year. Now, HBO Max is working on a television adaptation.
Have you read Circe? Anecdotally, we’re going to go with yes. Because that’s how omnipresent Madeline Miller’s retelling of the Greek mythology has been.
It’s a number one bestseller. It was nominated for the Women’s Prize. It was raved by celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and January Jones. And now it’s going to be turned into a television series for HBO’s new streaming service HBO Max.
According to Deadline, Circe will be adapted into an eight episode miniseries from a script written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The pair, who have collaborated on the scripts for Jurassic World and the forthcoming live-action adaptation of Mulan, have worked on transforming Miller’s novel for TV, taking its themes of power, love and feminism to the small screen.
“Circe tells an epic story of love, loss, tragedy and immortal conflict, all through the eyes of a fierce female lens,” Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max told Deadline. “I’ve been a longtime fan of Rick and Amanda’s work and their ability to simultaneously build epic imaginative worlds while creating emotional dynamic characters. In partnership with Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping we have the dream team to bring Circe to life.”
There’s no word yet on who will star in the series or when production will begin. If the show is a faithful adaptation of the book you can be that the main characters will be Circe, powerful and mystical daughter of Helios the sun god; Odysseus, the warrior who ends up stranded on Circe’s island after the Battle of Troy; and the inventor Daedalus who crafted the maze for the Minotaur of Crete.
With its mixture of fantasy, magic, sex and power Circe is perfectly positioned to fill the Game of Thrones-shaped hole in HBO’s upcoming slate. Some of their other forthcoming series include Dune: The Sisterhood, a feminist retelling of the beloved sci-fi novel as well as dystopian adaptation Station Eleven, a Gossip Girl reboot and Tokyo Vice, a gritty series about the seedy underbelly of Japanese organised crime starring Ansel Elgort.
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