Just this year, we have already seen two screen interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, in the form of Prime Video’s Young Sherlock and the second season of CBS’ Watson.
We have also seen the commission of a new series, The Death of Sherlock Holmes, which will air on Sky and star Rafe Spall in the title role.
Now, we have heard that another new screen version of the Holmes mythos is on the way, this time focussed on his arch nemesis, James Moriarty.
Moriarty [working title], comes from producers Fremantle and Archery Pictures, and will be written by Chris Cornwell (A Discovery of Witches, Doctor Who: Redacted) and Oliver Lansley (Flack, Where’s Wanda?).
As has been reported by Deadline, the team behind the new series has said it will be a “modern reinvention of the crime procedural, based on the most famous villain in all of detective fiction”.
The synopsis for the series reads: “Moriarty is a Professor of Criminal Psychology at Durham University but leads a secret double life as the mastermind behind every crime of sophistication in the North of England.
“When a rival criminal begins an assault on his underground empire, Moriarty will have only one choice: to join the police as a consultant, using the law as a weapon to dismantle his foe while keeping his true identity hidden from the police.
“Paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, a stoic Yorkshire detective, they’ll form a fearsome team, but Moriarty will soon realise that the real threat isn’t the rival criminal faction he’s dismantling.”
No casting has yet been announced for the series, but whoever does play Moriarty will follow in the footsteps of actors including Jared Harris (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), Andrew Scott (Sherlock) and Dónal Finn (Young Sherlock).
Archery Pictures founder Kris Thykier said in a statement: “We are thrilled to be working with Fremantle to bring to life the original and character driven spin off from the Sherlock Holmes universe that Chris Cornwell has created. Moriarty will show audiences what it takes to be a criminal genius, combining genre thrills with a playful, dark, and thrilling dive into the psychology of villainy.”
Meanwhile, Rebecca Dundon, SVP Scripted Content at Fremantle, added: “We’ve been looking for a project to work with Archery on for a while and when Kris brought this to us, we instantly saw huge potential for a commercial, returning franchise that brings to life one of the more allusive characters in the Sherlock world.”
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