Fremantle and Archery Pictures (Is This Thing On?, Riviera, Fate: The Winx Saga), the production company from BAFTA nominated producer Kris Thykier, have announced a collaboration on new original drama Moriarty (w/t).
Moriarty is written by Chris Cornwell (A Discovery of Witches, Strike Back) and Oliver Lansley (Where’s Wanda?, Flack), while Archery Pictures and Fremantle will co-produce. Fremantle will also handle global sales.
Inspired by Professor James Moriarty – the fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a formidable enemy and arch nemesis to Sherlock Holmes – Moriarty (w/t) is a modern reinvention of the crime procedural, based on the famous villain. James 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, but Imogen’s increasingly perceptive suspicions…
Kris Thykier, Founder, Archery Pictures said: “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 (w/t) 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.”
Rebecca Dundon, SVP Scripted Content at Fremantle said: “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: Moriarty. It’s exciting to collaborate with Kris and the team at Archery to bring a premium, propulsive, contemporary drama to screen that will not only be clever and hooky, but also give us a fresh spin on the procedural crime format with an unconventionally brilliant protagonist at the heart who will constantly surprise and frustrate viewers in a highly entertaining manner!”
Jon Creamer
Share this story
