William Faulkner's complete works sold for TV adaptation

Often described as unfilmable, the works of William Faulkner are set to be adapted for television by David Milch, creator of the violent western series Deadwood and the police drama NYPD Blue.

Milch's Redboard Productions has signed a multi-year deal with cable network HBO which includes developing television series and films based on the American Nobel laureate's writing. The agreement covers Faulkner's 19 novels and 125 short stories, and follows what Milch told the New York Times were "months" of discussions with the William Faulkner Literary Estate.

Although Faulkner himself worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, working on the screenplays for the film versions of The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not, his own writing is frequently labelled as unfilmable. A loose adaptation of his novel The Sound and the Fury was made in 1959, however, starring Yul Brynner as Jason Compson.

Milch told the Los Angeles Times that he had "never understood" why Faulkner was described as unfilmable. "To me he seems enormously cinematic," he said. "But I've heard that, once or twice."

Citing Absalom, Absalom! as his favourite Faulkner novel, Milch praised the author's prose and dialogue. "They are superb, and compelling, and absolutely authentic. They're so contemporary. You know, Faulkner wrote for film, and his ear is just impeccable," he said. "For me, he is a distinctive voice in American literature in the last century. The variety of the work, and the richness of its perspectives on the great themes. Faulkner speaks to us on the questions of race, the challenges of modernity and modern man's dilemma in all of its aspects. That he is able to specify among those and bring those themes alive is one of his great gifts. There are so many different kinds of pleasures one gets from encountering those materials."

It has not yet been decided which of Faulkner's works will be the first to be adapted. Milch said in a statement that "we look forward to identifying and collaborating with the best screenwriters and filmmakers to help each of the pieces find its ideal form onscreen".