J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy set for TV
BBC aims to air independent production in 2014
CBC News
Posted: Dec 3, 2012 2:09 PM ET
Last Updated: Dec 3, 2012 2:07 PM ET
British author J.K. Rowling, seen at the Lincoln Center in October, travelled to New York to promote her first adult fiction book, The Casual Vacancy. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
J.K. Rowling's latest novel is getting the TV treatment, with BBC announcing Monday it will adapt her latest book The Casual Vacancy.
One of 2012's most anticipated literary releases, The Casual Vacancy is the Harry Potter creator's first book for adults.
Though the darkly comic, contemporary portrait of small-town British life received mixed reviews upon its release in September, the novel has nonetheless topped bestseller charts.
The book explores the notion of communal responsibility through its tale of an outwardly idyllic, fictional British town grappling with a poor neighbourhood located on its outskirts. The plot touches on issues ranging from state-funded housing and services to class struggles to cyber bullying.
Though not as much as her Harry Potter series, The Casual Vacancy nonetheless puts a strong emphasis and pivots on the actions of several teen characters central to the story. It is the first full-length work Rowling has completed since ending her blockbuster teen wizard saga in 2007.
An independent production company will adapt The Casual Vacancy as a television drama for broadcast on BBC One, tentatively for 2014.
"I always felt that, if it were to be adapted, this novel was best suited to television and I think the BBC is the perfect home," Rowling said of the British public broadcaster.
Meanwhile, BBC drama controller Ben Stephenson called her book "an extraordinary tapestry of modern Britain" full of "humour, social commentary and above all fantastic characters."
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