Pendulum Picked Up by NBCUniversal International Studios

LONDON: NBCUniversal International Studios is developing the crime thriller Pendulum, from author and screenwriter Adam Hamdy, for television.

Hamdy will work with NBCUniversal International Studios to adapt the novel and serve as executive producer on the show. It will be produced by London production company Hardy Son & Baker, with whom NBCUniversal International Studios has a first-look deal.

The U.S. book rights have been acquired by Quercus, which is set to publish Pendulum in North America in June 2017. Pendulum was acquired by Headline as the first in a trilogy of books. Headline will publish Pendulum in the U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand in November.

Additionally, NBCUniversal International Studios optioned the rights for Trees, a science-fiction graphic-novel series by award-winning comic book writer and New York Times best-selling author Warren Ellis and illustrator Jason Howard. The comics will be adapted for screen by Hardy Son & Baker.

Tom Coan, the senior VP of scripted programming at NBCUniversal International Studios, commented: “Warren is one of the top names in comics and a best-selling author who has a terrifically subversive perspective on story. It’s that unique sensibility that sits at the heart of Trees, where he has turned the alien invasion genre on its ear. In addition to being inventive, Trees is simultaneously epic and intimate; a combination that lends itself very well to international television.”