Although Ridley Scott might have one too many projects up his sleeve he has been attached to yet another one, Variety reports. The UK Red Riding crime trilogy, which premiered at this years Telluride Film Festival, has been picked up by Columbia for production through writer Steve Zaillian and Scott’s companies (Film Rite and Scott Free, respectively). Zaillian and Scott have previously worked together on Hannibal and American Gangster.
/Film reports:
The original films adapt three novels by David Peace: Nineteen Seventy-Four, Nineteen Eighty and Nineteen Eighty-Three. All were written Terry Gilliam’s frequent co-writer Tony Grisoni, and helmed by three directors: Julian Jarrold (1974), James Marsh (1980) and Anand Tucker (1983). Here’s some plot: “set against a backdrop of serial murders, including the Yorkshire Ripper case, they deal with multi-layered corruption and feature several recurring characters across the four books. Though real crimes are featured the scripts are fictionalized and dramatised versions of events rather than contemporary factual accounts.”
There is no word whether Scott will be condensing the story into one film, but IFC has distribution rights for the original UK series for a release later this fall.
What do you think about this project? Which Ridley Scott project are you most looking forward to?