‘The Night Of’ Co-Creator Developing ‘True Crime Addict’ Book Into Drama
True crime has become big business over the past few years, both in fact and as the basis for drama. ‘Making A Murderer’ became an unexpected breakout hit for Netflix, ‘The Jinx’ won plaudits for HBO, as did ‘The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story’ for FX. Now ‘The Night Of’ co-creator Richard Price has teamed up with Universal Television and Johnny Depp’s production company, Infinitum Nihil, to adapt the factual book, ‘True Crime Addict’, into a drama series.
‘True Crime Addict’ is the memoir by American journalist and author James Renner, and tells the story of his obsession with the strange disappearance of University of Massachusetts student Maura Murray after a car crash in 2004. As he delves deeper and deeper into his investigation, he finds himself in increasingly dangerous situations with little regard for his own well-being. This starts to take a toll on his young family and personal life, as things begin to spiral wildly out of control. It’s not only a story about a missing girl, but also about James’s own equally complicated true crime addiction.
Price wrote the story as a spec script, so there is currently no network attached, but Universal Television & Infinitum Nihil will begin shopping it around soon. It’s believed, due to the content, they are looking a US cable networks and streaming services as being the most likely candidates to take the show to series.
As I know this question will probably come up, there are currently no plans for ‘The Night Of’ Season 2. However, Price’s co-creator, Steven Zaillian, has commented “We would love to do it… And when I say ‘we,’ I mean Richard Price and myself. If we can come up with something that we fall in love with, we’ll do it. If we don’t, we won’t.” So it’s not a no, but it’s not a yes either.
We’ll let you know when we hear more about ‘True Crime Addict’, but it does sound like a really interesting premise for a series!
