According to an exclusive report from Deadline, FX has acquired the rights to Don Winslow’s internationally bestselling Cartel trilogy and is currently being adapted for television.
From Deadline:
FX Networks has landed the rights to turn Don Winslow’s acclaimed Cartel Trilogy into a TV series. The series will encompass Winslow’s 2005 novel The Power of the Dog, the 2015 followup The Cartel, and the just-published conclusion, The Border. Latter book, which The New York Times called “a hybrid of The Godfather and War and Peace,” and “this generation’s defining work of American mass-culture storytelling on the border,” just debuted on the NYT bestseller lists in the number three slot. The deal was made by John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions.
Winslow and Shane Salerno will be Executive Producers. Salerno will co-write the pilot with a writer/showrunner to be set shortly. FX is producing with The Story Factory. Ridley Scott will also serve as an Executive Producer. While Winslow and Salerno will not be day-to-day showrunners, they will be closely involved in shaping and sustaining the series.
Originally acquired by Fox to be a major motion picture franchise, the new direction of the project will likely be welcomed by Winslow’s readers, who know all too well just how much depth there is to the author’s work, which could never truly be done justice with a ninety-minute to a two-hour film. Thus, a series feels like a perfect fit, where one season—maybe even several—can follow and explore each book, beginning with the events found in The Power of the Dog.
While Deadline reports that Winslow and Salerno will be “involved” in the show and that it could get going “soon,” there are no official production dates as of yet, so it’s unclear how long fans will have to wait to see Winslow’s stories brought to life.
On the book side of things, Winslow’s trilogy just recently came to a close with The Border, which came out last Tuesday and is set to debut at #3 on the New York Times bestsellers list under the hardcover fiction category. So those hoping to get an early look at how the show will likely wind down in the future should probably grab a copy of Don Winslow’s latest thriller as soon as possible—now available in bookstores everywhere.
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and pens a monthly thriller column for CrimeReads. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.