Watership Down publishers before Collings accepted it, it won the annual Carnegie Medal, annual Guardian Prize, and other book awards. It was adapted into an animated feature film in 1978, and later a television series which ran from 1999 to 2001. Later, a miniseries of the story was made and aired in the UK in 2018. Adams completed a sequel almost 25 years later, "Tales from Watership Down" (Random House, 1996; Hutchinson and Alfred A. Knopf imprints). It is a collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah and the rabbits of the Watership Down warren, with "Notes on Pronunciation" and "Lapine Glossary".
Watership Down (film) visited by El-ahrairah, who invites him to join his own Owsla, assuring him of Watership Down's perpetual safety and its future. Reassured, Hazel accepts and dies peacefully. His spirit then follows El-ahrairah through the woodland and trees towards the Sun, which metamorphoses into Frith, and the afterlife. Production of the film began in 1975 and was originally to be directed by John Hubley, who died in 1977. His work can still be found in the film, most notably in the "fable" scene. He was replaced by the film's producer Martin Rosen, his directorial debut. After the genesis story, which was