EXCLUSIVE: A24 has beaten as many as 20 other bidders to adapt Laura Shepherd-Robinson‘s upcoming novel We Are the Dead for TV.
The book, which is Shepherd-Robinson’s first contemporary crime thriller, follows Brontë Hayes, the head of a London police team that is tasked with investigating cases of national sensitivity. It begins with a beheading in the Tower of London, the first in 300 years, as Brontë is called in to investigate the brutal murder by decapitation of the former Commander of the British Army who is in charge of the largely military community who live in the grounds of the Tower. We understand We Are the Dead is being seen as a potential book series, with Hayes as protagonist.
The book won’t be published until next year and doesn’t yet have a cover but we are told it emerged in a big way at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, after which there was a fierce auction featuring as many as 20 bidders, according to sources. A24’s UK team, run by Piers Wenger and Rose Garnett, won out. The development is in its early stages, with creative team and casting to come.
Watch on Deadline
Shepherd-Robinson, whose father is Blackadder star Tony Robinson, has previously written historical novels including The Art of a Lie, The Square of Sevens and Daughters of Night.
A24 UK just hired Heartstopper EP Patrick Walters and has a number of TV projects upcoming including Apple TV’s The Husbands with Juno Temple, Channel 4 soccer drama Major Players from Molly Manning Walker and Michaela Coel’s next show, First Day on Earth, for the BBC and HBO.