BBC Two has optioned British fantasy writer China Miéville‘s novel, The City & the City, for television.
Mammoth Screen will produce the series. The station will develop the thriller into a four-part series based on the Inspector Tyador Borlú character from the book. British screenwriter Tony Grisoni will adapt the novel to the screen. Here is more about the story from the press release:
The mutilated body of a foreign student is found dumped on some wasteland and Borlú is assigned to the case. Borlu is unfazed until he uncovers evidence that the dead girl had been involved in the political turmoil between Besźel and its prosperous twin city of Ul Qoma, which occupies the same physical space. Citizens of each city are forbidden from seeing each other, and the frontier between the cities is policed by ‘Breach’ which punishes all transgressions.
“We are thrilled to be bringing China’s dazzlingly inventive novel to BBC Two,” said Damien Timmer, managing director at Mammoth. “It’s a 21st Century classic – a truly thrilling and imaginative work which asks big questions about how we perceive the world and how we interact with each other.”