Copyright Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Cheo Hodari Coker, the creator of Netflix’s Marvel series Luke Cage, is adapting Ace Atkins’ novel Don’t Let The Devil Ride after Tomorrow Studios acquired the rights to the book. Tomorrow Studios, the ITV joint venture behind series such as Netflix’s One Piece and Amazon’s The Better Sister, picked up the rights to the thriller, which was published last year. It tells the story of Addison McKellar, who thought she knew the man she married – charming, successful Dean McKellar – until he vanished. Fearing the worst, she hires private investigator Porter Hayes, an old friend of her father’s and a legend in Memphis. As Hayes starts pulling at loose threads Addison’s entire life unravels. Her husband’s prosperous construction firm? It doesn’t exist. Instead, her easy, affluent lifestyle is funded by blood money from Dean’s shadowy international mercenary firm – and she doesn’t even know his real name. The adaptation will be exec produced by Atkins and Coker as well as Tomorrow Studios CEO and Partner Marty Adelstein, President and Partner Becky Clements and EVP Alissa Bachner. Atkins is the author of White Shadow, Wicked City, Devil’s Garden and a number of books in Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. His next book is Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Coker has written on series such as Southland, NCIS: LA, Almost Human and Ray Donovan and was involved in films including Notorious and Creed II. He recently adapted Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel with John Ridley attached to co-write and direct for 20th Century Studios and Dwayne Alexander Smith’s novel Forty Acres for Netflix, as well as co-writing and producing Paris Barclay’s forthcoming Billy Preston documentary That’s The Way God Planned It and exec producing Questlove’s Earth, Wind & Fire documentary for HBO. It marks the latest adaptation for Tomorrow Studios; its adaptation of manga series One Piece was recently renewed for a third season by Netflix, it is developing an adaptation of Elissa Sussman’s novel Funny You Should Ask for Apple with Regé-Jean Page attached to star and exec produce, and is also working on a limited series about Claus von Bülow, the socialite who was accused in 1981 of attempting to murder his wife Sunny at Apple with Adolescence’s Jack Thorne set to write. The company also produced Apple’s Physical, Netflix’s Cowboy Bepop, and Snowpiercer. “Ace Atkins is a singular voice, and we flew through this novel for the wild ride it is; nabbing an utterly dynamic and meticulous creator like Cheo to adapt it for series is the perfect pairing. We can’t wait to introduce audiences to Porter Hayes in a story that takes us from the streets of Memphis all around the world,” said Tomorrow Studios President and Partner. Atkins is repped by CAA for lit and WME for film and TV; Coker is repped by CAA, M88 and Fox Rothschild.
