With his series The Bear turning in record ratings for its second season at Hulu, creator Christopher Storer is getting plenty of other opportunities. And he’s snapped one up – he’s set to direct the adaptation of Don Winslow‘s 2006 novel The Winter of Frankie Machine for Paramount.
This project has been gestating for a while, with big names such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, and William Friedkin all attached to direct at one point.
In fact, Storer will use the script penned by Brian Koppelman & David Levien that Scorsese was going to use when he was planning to make the film with Robert De Niro in the lead role.
The film will be produced by Winslow himself, and Shane Salerno of The Story Factory. The duo reportedly received numerous approaches from major filmmakers over the past decade, but never found the right fit and shot down all overtures until Storer came along.
They had become fans of the initial season of The Bear, and loved Storer’s passion for the novel, and that he was a fan of the original script.
The deal was actually made before the current WGA strike, but Deadline is only getting a hold of the story now, with Storer’s stock peaking thanks to The Bear‘s success.
The novel revolves around Frankie Machiani, a hitman for a San Diego mob family who’s dragged out of retirement when asked by an LA crime boss to oversee a meeting between Detroit and LA crime families.
He quickly realises it’s all a set up to kill him, and has to shake off the rust and dodge those killers until he figures out who is trying to put hm down.
As mentioned, De Niro and Scorsese were once attached, until they said they instead wanted to do a different hitman tale, The Irishman. But any adaptation of a hard-boiled Winslow novel is usually a cause for a celebration, and it will be fascinating to see what Storer can do with the material.
Attention will now turn to who is cast in the main roles.
Storer’s The Bear – a comedy-drama that focuses on a young chef from the world of fine dining returning home to Chicago to run his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop after the suicide of his older brother – is currently streaming on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ internationally.
#Peace.Love.TheWinterOfFrankieMachine
