Listen: Slaughterhouse-Five is being turned into a TV show.
That’s per Variety, which reports that Universal Cable recently snatched up the rights to Kurt Vonnegut’s beloved novel of war, death, and regular nobodies coming unstuck in time. The show is being handed over to Patrick Macmanus, whose new Syfy series, the Christopher Meloni-starring Happy!, debuts later tonight
Vonnegut’s novel has been adapted for the screen before, with director George Roy Hill attempting to wrangle the book’s sprawling, time-disjointed narrative into a more conventional cinematic structure. (The author himself was reportedly a fan of Hill’s efforts.) Guillermo Del Toro expressed some interest in remaking the film back in 2013, but like so many of Del Toro’s ephemeral dreams, this one evaporated in the harsh light of day and a thousand other commitments.
Macmanus will write and executive produce the new series. So it goes.