J.K. Rowling's 'C.B. Strike' Detective Drama to Return for 'Lethal White'
How's this for some speed reading? J.K. Rowling's new novel — the latest installment of her Cormoran Strike detective series — has only been out a matter of weeks, but the BBC has already announced it's going to adapt it for television.
Deadline reports the broadcaster will soon start filming Lethal White, just as it did the three previous Strike novels The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm and Career of Evil. The series was renamed C.B. Strike in the U.S. when it aired on Cinemax over the summer.
"We are delighted to announce that the Strike series will return to BBC One with Lethal White," said Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, calling it "another brilliant, knotty and original crime story."
Tom Burke will reprise his role of Cormoran Strike, a war veteran turned private detective who operates out of a tiny London office, while Holliday Grainger will return as Robin Ellacott, his assistant.
The new story follows Billy, a troubled young man who asks for help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child. Despite his patchy memory and obvious mental anguish, Strike and Robin decide there's something sincere about his story, and set off on a journey that takes in the streets of London, a "disturbing inner sanctum" in the Houses of Parliament, and a "beautiful, sinister manor deep in the English countryside."
Oo-er. The new story is also longer than the previous three. Whereas the earlier Strike novel, which like her new book Rowling wrote under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, were adapted into just two or three episodes each, Lethal White will span to four one-hour parts. In true Harry Potter tradition, each book in the series has been getting longer than the previous one.
Lethal White is expected to air some time in 2019 in the U.K. As for an American airing, Cinemax, which showed C.B. Strike in the U.S., has not yet confirmed if it will carry the new adaptation. According to Deadline, the network "hasn't had the opportunity to read the book yet."
Come on, Cinemax! Get reading!
Have you finished your copy yet?
