According to IndieWire, director William Friedkin is in development on a TV series based upon his 2011 black comedy crime film Killer Joe.
The site reports that Friedkin revealed at the Lumiere Festival in France that he is teaming with producer Bobby Maresco (Million Dollar Baby) for a new take on the story, which will shift the story from Texan trailer parks to upper class Houston.
“It’s set among the millionaires and billionaires, who have their wives or business competitors killed,” said Friedkin. “Joe is a hired killer who frames bad guys for the murders who can’t get arrested for something else, or he makes them look like suicides…He becomes a kind of avenging angel in the series because he doesn’t just kill anybody for hire. He has to feel that guy in some way deserves to go.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard whispers of a Killer Joe TV series, although Friedkin revealed that eOne is in talks to produce the show, and that he and Maresco will begin work on the show bible in the coming weeks.
Based on Tracy Letts’ 1993 play, Killer Joe saw Matthew McConaughey takig on the role of Joe Cooper, a police detective moonlighting as a contract killer, who is hired by a young drug dealer to kill his mother so he can collect on the life insurance. McConaughey was joined in the cast by Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church and Marc Macaulay.
Originally published October 29, 2017. Updated July 19, 2024.
