It looks like William Friedkin is the latest big name Hollywood director to make the jump to the crowded world of television. Friedkin has announced that he’s developing his 2012 film, Killer Joe, into a TV adaptation.
Reportedly, Friedkin is looking to take Joe out of the trailer park he inhabited in the film and throw him into high Texas society as the chief of police. Friedkin himself said:
“It’s set among the millionaires and billionaires, who have their wives or business competitors killed. 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”.
The film was very memorable, but in that skin-crawling way that makes you want to take a shower after having watched it. It doesn’t exactly sound like Friedkin is looking for that same experience, though it’s very unlikely he’d be able to keep a show on the air that plunged to the depths of the film.
Then again, we witnessed arguably the strangest episode of mainstream television ever in episode eight of Twin Peaks this year, so who knows?
However, the bad news is that Friedkin isn’t planning on bringing back Matthew McConaughey for the lead role. It’s probably unlikely he’d be available to do it anyway now that he’s such a superstar, but it’s still a shame considering the remarkable darkness he originally brought to the role.
Still, it’s another interesting development from a director predominantly experienced in film making the jump to the smaller screen. Friedkin is reportedly set to begin working on the show’s pitch with Million Dollar Baby producer Bobby Maresco within the next week, so things could get moving quickly.
#Peace.Love.KillerJoe
