Starz Develops ’60s Crime Drama with Departed Scribe William Monahan

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There are some big things happening over at Starz and they involve Academy Award winner screenwriter William Monahan. These days when there are things going down at Starz it means a new series is in development and that sentiment rings true; Monahan is bringing a period crime drama to Starz that will study the criminal enterprises and scandal across a 1960s Britain. There’s no better a person than Monahan for cooking up such a series; he snagged his Oscar for penning the twisty Martin Scorsese directed crime film, The Departed. Monahan knows his crime dramas and it’s for that reason alone that I am deeply interested in the potential of this series.

Monahan has already received a script commitment from Starz, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which he will be writing. Vanessa Sadler originally developed the project, called Crime, as a feature film treatment, but at some point someone must have decided it would work better as a TV series. This will be Atlas Entertainment’s first foray into television, with the company’s own Charles Royen and William Green serving as executive producers. They’ll be working alongside Monahan and Andy Horwitz as co-executive producers. Justine Suzanne, the president of development at Monahan’s Henceforth Pictures, will co-executive produce as well. The whole deal came together thanks to Monahan’s agent, Josh Varney.

Starz will finance the development of Crime with Sonar Entertainment. Sonar secured the rights to distribute the project worldwide with Starz retaining pay television and home entertainment rights in the U.S.

The development of Crime is a continuation of Starz’s rapid expansion into the area of scripted television in recent years. In 2013 alone we’ll see the premieres of Spartacus’ final season, the second season of Magic City, as well as freshman series Da Vinci’s Demons and The White Queen. It looks like it’s going to be a big year for Starz. Here’s hoping it all works out for the pay cable network.