EXCLUSIVE: Doctor Who writer Toby Whithouse is to pen and exec produce Fremantle’s adaptation of fantasy drama Gormenghast.

Whithouse, who created BBC Three fantasy thriller Being Human, is to work alongside Good Omens and American Gods’ Neil Gaiman and A Beautiful Mind’s Akiva Goldsman on the project. The latter pair will serve as non-writing exec producers alongside Barry Spikings (The Deer Hunter) and David A. Stern (Howards End), who was instrumental in bringing this deal together.

The series is being developed and produced out of Fremantle’s U.S. division, which also produces American Gods for Starz, with Director of Scripted Development Oliver Jones overseeing the project.

This comes after Deadline revealed in April that the RTL-owned producer and distributor won a hotly contested battle to option the five books in the series, written by British author Mervyn Peake from literary agent Jonathan Sissons at Peters, Fraser and Dunlop.

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It marks the first television adaptation of the books since the BBC adapted the first two books – Titus Groan and Gormenghast – as a four-part series in 2000 with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Christopher Lee starring.

The books follow the inhabitants of Castle Gormenghast, a sprawling, decaying, gothic-like structure with a raft of characters including Titus, the heir to the throne of the House of Groan, scheming kitchen boy Steerpike and twin sisters Cora and Clarice.

It is one of many projects on Gaiman’s docket; he recently revealed that he had a five season plan for American Gods and he also debuted the first footage of his forthcoming Amazon Prime Video and BBC co-production Good Omens, which debuts in the new year. Meanwhile, Oscar-winning writer Goldsman has previously worked on Fox’s mystery drama Fringe, Star Trek: Discovery and Titans.

Whithouse, who has also recently worked on BBC One’s dystopian drama Noughts and Crosses, is represented by 42 and WME.