“Murder as a Fine Art,” the Victorian mystery thriller by bestseller author David Morrell, best known as the creator of John Rambo and the writer of “First Blood,” is set to be adapted into a TV series.
Rights to the novel has been bought by A Higher Standard and Harris Films, with the series set to mark the first TV project for A Higher Standard, launched last year by former Millennium president Jeffrey Greenstein.
Set in 1850s London, the novel blends fact and fiction as it follows Thomas De Quincey, the real-life and otorious opium-eater and essayist, as he’s implicated in a series of gruesome murders that appear to be inspired by his own sensational essay, “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts.” To clear his name, De Quincey must team up with his brilliant daughter Emily and a pair of Scotland Yard detectives to stop a killer who’s turning theory into deadly practice.
“David Morrell delivers yet again, this time with a riveting murder mystery so unique in setting and narrative that murder becomes ‘a Fine Art’,” said Greenstein. “The novel depicts the first-ever publicized mass murders in English history, long before Jack the Ripper. These murders literally paralyzed London and all of England.”
David Harris of Harris Films will executive produce alongside Greenstein, with Thayer Juergens producing and Rebecca Raichek overseeing development on behalf of A Higher Standard.
“Given today’s fascination with true crime, this is a particularly exhilarating time to introduce audiences to such a compelling, complex character as Thomas De Quincey, a Victorian expert in mass murderers,” Harris said. “We’re excited to showcase a gothic London in rich, accurate, and often terrifying detail, dramatizing the advent of modern criminology.”
Considered a pioneer of the modern action-thriller genre, Morrell is the creator of the legendary character John Rambo and the author of over 30 books which have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into more than 30 languages. His “The Brotherhood of the Rose” remains the basis for the only television miniseries to be broadcast after a Super Bowl. “Murder as a Fine Art” is the first in his Victorian mystery trilogy featuring De Quincey.
“I couldn’t ask for a more exciting team to work with than Jeffrey Greenstein, David Harris, and the rest of the innovative talents at A Higher Standard,” Morrell said. “Their enthusiasm is matched by their inventiveness.”
David Morrell is repped by Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret Literary Management.