Copyright Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Enright‘s Sam Pope bestseller action-thriller novels are being adapted for TV. London- and L.A.-based Avatar Entertainment has acquired rights to the series, which comprises 15 books and follows Sam Pope, a military-trained assassin who goes from the UK’s deadliest weapon to its most wanted man as he wages a one-man war on organized crime. The Jack Reacher-style stories see him face off against gangsters, traffickers and international terrorists, as Pope runs from authorities and his dark past. The novels include titles such as The Night Shift, The Takers, Man of My Word, The Final Mile and Too Far Gone. They’re broadly set around London and across Europe. Avatar founder Larry Robinson is exec producing the project. He said: “I am excited to work with Robert Enright to adapt his fantastic Sam Pope collection into a super premium action-thriller TV series for action fans around the world.” For Avatar, the acquisition follows other such as rights to spy thriller Operation Kazan (Operacion Kazan) by Spanish journalist Vicente Vallés which is being adapted by Spanish born screenwriters Borja Moreno and Pablo Riquelme Cuartero, and Leesa Cross-Smith’s novel Half Blown Rose, which is a romantic drama set in Paris. Last year, we reported Avatar was shopping Mary V. Dearborn’s biography of Ernest Hemingway at MIPCOM. Avatar was represented by CAA in its deal for the Sam Pope books.