July 7, 2008–Channel 4 is producing a trilogy of films about the hunt for Yorkshire Ripper serial killer.
The three crimer Revolution is producing for Channel 4 are based on three of the four books in British novelist David Peaces Red Riding Quartet, is set in Yorkshire in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The story covers police corruption and perversion of justice in the hunt for the Ripper from 1975 until his detection in 1981, when Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women. He is serving multiple life sentences.
Three directors, all previously working with Film 4, are aboard to helm the project, which is budgeted at $10 million in total. Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane) will direct Nineteen Seventy Four, James Marsh (Man on Wire) will direct Nineteen Eighty and Anand Tucker (And When Did You Last See Your Father) will direct Nineteen Eighty Three.
Tony Grisoni, who wrote the screenplay for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has adapted the three Peace books. Elements from Peaces second book, Nineteen Seventy Seven, will be woven into the three pics.
The films, commissioned by C4 drama head Liza Marshall, are made as a TV series with a U.K. theatrical release to follow. Pictures will carry the Film 4 banner outside the U.K., where they will be sold for theatrical release.
A bigscreen version of Peaces The Damned United, about soccer coach Brian Clough, is now shooting.
BBC Films United was adapted by Peter Morgan (The Queen) and stars Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall.