The production company behind True Detective are to begin work on a TV adaptation of Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

Richard Brown, an executive producer on the HBO crime drama, told the Telegraph that he was “very excited” about the project. “It’s probably the greatest American novel of all time,” he said.

Heller’s WWII satire is being adapted for TV by Luke Davies, the Australian screenwriter behind this year’s James Dean biopic, Life. The miniseries is slated to be directed by David Michôd, best known for the 2010 crime thriller Animal Kingdom.

'Catch-22' author Joseph Heller on Coney Island, 1998 Credit: TODD PLITT

Brown, head of New York production company Passenger, described the series as “in the very early stages”: “it’s still being written... who knows when it comes out or how long it will be, but we are very excited to make it happen, and we look forward to the challenge.”

The novel was previously adapted as a 1970 film, starring Alan Arkin as the cynical pilot Yossarian, with a starry supporting cast including Orson Welles, Bob Newhart, Martin Sheen and Art Garfunkel. The film was not a box-office hit, failing to match the popular success of M.A.S.H, released earlier the same year.

Orson Welles as General Dreedle and Susanne Benton as a WAC nurse in 'Catch-22' (1970)

Despite feeling the project would be better suited to TV, Richard Brown defended the film version: “I love the movie. I think it was great but I wish it was six hours long – I think it needs to be to get all the important bits in there… There is too much there to condense into a two-hour film.”

This will not be the first attempt to adapt Catch-22 for the small screen. A 1973 TV pilot was broadcast with Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role, but a full series was never commissioned.

Richard Brown will be speaking about True Detective at the Telegraph's Wigtown Book Festival on Sunday