ABC Channel is turning the 1967 bestseller novel "Time After Time" by Karl Alexander into a TV series, Deadline reports.
Kevin Williamson is set to write the script and executive produce through his company Outerbanks Entertainment and WBTV.
Williamson is well-known for co-creating the series "The Following", "Stalker" and "The Vampire Diaries". He also penned the script for the thriller "I Know What You Did Last Summer".
In Karl Alexander's 1967 novel, H.G. Wells has built a time machine and plans to use it to travel to a utopia in the future. However, Jack the Ripper stole the machine to escape the police. Wells follows Jack and enlists a bank teller to help him catch the criminal at large.
H.G. Wells is actually a well-known English writer across many genres. He is popular for his science fiction novels including "The Time Machine", which also uses the concept of time travel and a time machine.
He was also renowned by some as the father of science fiction. Wells died in 1946, 33 years before the sci-fi novel and film "Time After Time" surfaced, where he is immortalized as a main csharacter.
Jack the Ripper is the famous but unidentified serial killer who particularly attacked female prostitutes in 19th century London.
In the literary world, he is just as famous. He appears in various literary works and is one of the most famous and familiar criminals in fiction.
Though it may sound like a typical time travel story, "Time After Time" was a success in the screen when it was adapted into film in 1979.
"'Time After Time' is every bit as magical as the trick around which it revolves," The New York Times reviewed the movie.
The film was directed and written by Nicholas Meyer. The actors include David Warner as Stevenson, Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells, and Mary Steenburgen as Amy.
The film also somehow worked a different kind of magic on the actors. Actors Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen, who played the love interests H.G. Wells and Amy, got married in real life after meeting and knowing each other through the film.
See the film trailer below.
Meanwhile, more and more science fiction stories are becoming popular in TV.
Other notable sci-fi works that involve the time travel concept include "Doctor Who", a sci-fi TV series that features the adventures of a Time Lord, a person who travels through space and time. He travels through the Tardis, as time machine disguised as a British police box.
"Star Trek" has also gained a notable spot in the sci-fi world. With ships that can travel at speeds faster than light's, the series explores different lives and civilizations unimaginable on Earth. The series also features concepts of time travel and alternate universes.