Action maven Shane Black is looking to bring one of literature’s most fascinating spies to the small screen. He’s part of a creative team at AMC Studios working on a new adaptation of a series of popular spy novels. AMC has just announced that they’ve opened a writers’ room to explore the series, which is in development.
Black is working on a TV adaptation of John R. Maxim‘s Bannerman novels. The series, which encompasses five novels published between 1989 and 2003, centers around Paul Bannerman, a man who was once one of the deadliest secret agents in the world. As of the first novel, The Bannerman Solution, he’s retired to Westport, Connecticut, which just so happens to be a town designed specifically as a retirement spot for ex-assassins, spies, and operatives. However, events soon conspire to bring Bannerman and his compatriots back into action. Black will executive produce and direct the series, which will be written and showrun by Craig Silverstein (Percy Jackson and the Olympians); it will also be executive produced by Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead) and co-executive produced by Brian Witten (Creepshow).
Who Is Shane Black?
With the help of his UCLA classmate, Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad), aspiring writer Shane Black sold the script for Lethal Weapon to Warner Bros. The novel twist on the buddy cop formula became a huge hit, and made its particular flavor of profane, violent male bonding a Black trademark. He worked as a script doctor on Predator (which he also has a small role in) and The Hunt for Red October, and penned the scripts for Last Action Hero, The Last Boy Scout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. After a lengthy hiatus from Hollywood, he made his directorial debut with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, an action comedy that also served as a comeback for Robert Downey Jr. He reunited with Downey to helm Iron Man 3, and has subsequently written and directed The Nice Guys, The Predator, and Play Dirty.
Other projects AMC has in the works include a TV series sequel to the classic Keanu Reeves–Patrick Swayze bank robbery thriller Point Break, and Great American Stories, an anthology series of literary adaptations. The latter will begin with The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck‘s Depression-era classic; it was famously adapted for the big screen in 1940 by John Ford.
A TV series based on the Bannerman spy novels is in development at AMC.
via Collider