FX Developing Welcome To Night Vale TV Series
FX will welcome you to Night Vale in a whole new way.
As reported by Deadline, FX has entered a development deal with Sony Pictures television to bring the spooky podcast Welcome to Night Vale to the small screen.
Better Call Saul executive producer Gennifer Hutchison is attached to adapt Welcome to Night Vale for a new television series, which she will executive produce through her overall agreement at Sony Pictures Television. Podcast creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, who also authored two franchise books entitled Welcome to Night Vale and It Devours!, will play an essential role in the television show as well, executive producing alongside Hutchison.
"We've never met anyone in the industry who understands our world and approach to storytelling better than Gennifer does," said Fink and Cranor at the time of the announcement. "We are lucky to be working with her, as well as FX–a network with a long history of creating excellent television."
Launched in 2012 after Fink and Cranor met through the New York Neo-Futurists theater group, Welcome to Night Vale quickly became a cult success, and has since been downloaded more than 180 million across the globe. Podcast episodes are formatted in the style of community updates, informing listeners on the happenings of the tiny desert town called Night Vale, giving them updates from the Sheriff's Secret Police, keeping them in the loop about what's going on with the blipping lights in the sky, and clueing them in on the ominous figures that lurk through the streets.
It remains unclear whether the series will directly adapt the podcast, translating each episode to a corresponding one for television, or if it will focus on a smaller portion of the podcast's sprawling world.
In addition to the new series, fans can expect more Welcome to Night Vale franchise reads. Fink and Cranor signed with Harper Perennial, a HarperCollins Publishers imprint, to write companion volumes based on seasons three and four of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. The upcoming books are set to include guest introductions penned by the authors as well as illustrations by Jessica Hayworth, longtime Welcome to Night Vale artist.
Amy Baker, Vice-President and Associate Publisher of Harper Perennial, said in a statement, "So many readers have passionately embraced the Welcome to Night Vale novels and script books. I can't wait to see the same enthusiasm for what I'm sure will be an amazing television series from Gennifer and FX."
No other details were given about what the series might entail, which characters it will include, or how many episodes have been ordered. Though Welcome to Night Vale fans know that Cecil Baldwin serves as a "hero" of the podcast, voicing the twice-monthly installments, he is but a small piece of the overall puzzle, which has expanded far beyond his individual reach.
In any case, viewers should expect a seriously strange series sure to give prestige television a run for its money.