Family Guy Creator Seth MacFarlane's Next Adaptation Is Not What You'd Expect

Seth MacFarlane is adapting Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning World War II novels, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, into a limited series for Universal Content Productions. In addition to clearly being something very much different from the Family Guy and American Dad creator, the limited series is also MacFarlane's first project with NBCUniversal.

"I can't think of a more exciting project with which to launch my creative partnership," MacFarlane told The Hollywood Reporter. "I've been a devoted fan of Wouk's WWII epic for decades, and its depiction of small-scale human endurance in the face of large-scale global upheaval has never been more relevant than it is today."

The novels chronicle one extended family's fight and struggle for survival, both directly and indirectly impacted by the events of World War II across multiple continents and years. The Winds of War (1971) starts six months before Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939 and ends shortly after the attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. War and Remembrance (1978) covers the years between 1939 to 1941. The novels were previously adapted in 1988 by Dan Curtis, who similar to MacFarlane, jumped typically expected genres (Curtis was known best for horror films) to revive Wouk's books.

MacFarlane and Seth Fisher (Masters of Sex, Saints and Strangers) will co-write the script and executive produce. Erica Higgins, the president of MacFarlane's production company Fuzzy Door, will also executive produce The Winds of War.

Fuzzy Door reportedly signed a five-year, nine-figure deal with NBCUniversal in January. Fuzzy Door's other shows include Hulu's The Orville and National Geographic's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which was hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and was an update of the 1980's Carl Sagan series.

No release date for the new series has yet been given.