Catton signs TV deal for ‘The Luminaries’

Monday, 3 February 2014 Books+Publishing

Eleanor Catton has signed a deal to help create a television miniseries adaptation of her Man Booker Prize-winning novel The Luminaries (Granta), reports the Sunday Star-Times.

Catton said she intends for the series to be filmed in New Zealand and wants to use the South Island west coast town of Hokitika to recreate the book’s setting of the New Zealand’s 1860s gold rush.

A clause in Catton’s contract forbids producers from killing off any characters from the book without her permission, however Catton said she is ‘open to changing a lot of the story, because what gives you a thrill on the page does not necessarily give you the same feeling on screen’.

The miniseries was planned to be filmed in 12 parts, but this may be reduced due to budget restrictions.

After winning the Man Booker Prize in October 2013, Catton has received various awards, including the Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. She has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and will receive an honourary Doctor of Literature from Victoria University in Wellington.

Category: Local news