Chernobyl-producer, SISTER, is to adapt the hit Audible Original true crime podcast West Cork for TV.
Created by Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde, the true crime hit will see Chief Creative Executive Kate Fenske and Joint Creative Director Naomi de Pear executive producing with Director of Development Alice Tyler developing for SISTER alongside Sam Bungey, Jennifer Forde, and Audible.
UTA negotiated the deal on behalf of Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde, as well as Audible for this project, and represents West Cork.
West Cork is the meticulously researched investigation into the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Du Plantier, a French film producer was found near her holiday home around the West Cork town of Schull, a serene region on Ireland’s idyllic southern coast. The case is widely known in Ireland, a dragged-out national fiasco and long source of morbid public fascination. Decades later, no one has been properly held responsible, but the aggrieved inhabitants of West Cork are convinced they know who did it—and that he still lives among them.
Journalist Sam Bungey and documentarian, Jennifer Forde lived as part of the community during the course of their investigation. As they guide listeners through the brutal, unsolved murder and the tangled web of its investigation, the pair introduce an intricate cast of characters, a provocative prime suspect, and a recovering community who all crave resolution. Not just for themselves but for Sophie Du Plantier and her family.
Upon its release, West Cork was the #1 nonfiction best seller on Audible’s Top 10 list for 7 weeks straight and remained on the list for 12 consecutive weeks. When it was released on iTunes, it reached #1 in the UK, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand, #2 in Australia and the Netherlands and reached #3 on the list of top Apple Podcasts in the US.
In addition to West Cork, SISTER is also in development on a range of projects adaptations of The Jungle Prince, Ellen Barry’s acclaimed story and podcast for The New York Times, directed by Mira Nair for Amazon, James McBride’s Deacon King Kong, which made the New York Times best-seller list in 2020, con-man thriller The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies for the BBC and Helena Merriman’s BBC Radio 4 podcast Tunnel 29, which has scored more than 5 million downloads worldwide and a Bee Gees biopic directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Jon Creamer
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