You got to love the bold, risk-taking nature of the entertainment industry. Forget trying anything new, find something that works and then make 20 others just like it...another cop procedural, anyone? Even better, just adapt another country's success stories and save yourself the time and effort of coming up with "original" programming. You see where this is going? Yes, another foreign television series is getting an American remake, and this time it's Britain's BAFTA-winning Criminal Justice.
At least they're picking up award-winning shows, right? I mean, it worked so well for AMC, because everyone is raving about the American version of The Killing . (What? What backlash?) There is one saving grace here, and her name is HBO. Just seeing that the pay-cable network will be handling the adaptation puts me at ease, and the fact that they've, according to Variety, brought in two excellent writers, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian and novelist (and The Wire alum) Richard Price doesn't hurt either. The project is just in the early stages of development with no time-line in place.
The original series, developed by Peter Moffat for BBC One, ran for two seasons, each focused on a different criminal case with completely different characters. Both seasons were only five episodes, which ran on consecutive nights...a format that probably won't be copied for the HBO remake. No word yet on a development time-line or any other series specifics, but we'll keep you posted.
