Neal Street Productions have picked up the television rights to Cara Hunter’s first standalone novel, Murder in the Family, set to be published in July by HarperCollins. Cara is the author of the Sunday Times best-selling DI Fawley crime novels, which have sold more than a million copies in the UK and have been published in 27 territories internationally.
Murder in the Family is an ingeniously plotted and addictive novel about an unsolved murder that gripped the nation. When Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London in 2003, he left behind a wealthy, older widow and three step-children. Years later, a group of experts are filmed on the set of a true-crime show as they re-examine the evidence – with shocking results.
Neal Street produces award-winning film, TV and theatre and is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023. Their most recent television slate includes the hugely successful Call the Midwife for the BBC, now in its 13th series, and along with The Franchise, an original TV comedy pilot, which Neal Street will produce for HBO and will be directed by Sam Mendes. Film projects include the newly released Empire of Light, for Searchlight Pictures, written and directed by Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth and Toby Jones, as well as the multi-award-winning 1917 starring George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch. Nicolas Brown from Neal Street said: ‘We are delighted to have been fortunate enough to acquire the screen rights and are looking forward to working on an adaptation that does justice to Cara’s uniquely entertaining and thrilling book.’