Warner Bros. TV and Plan B have teamed with writer Jason Richman to develop a drama series for Amazon inspired by Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Oscar-winner “The Departed.” The project marks Warner Bros. TV’s first co-production pact with Amazon.
Richman is writing the pilot and exec producing with Roy Lee, Michael Connolly, Graham King, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Sarah Esberg, Tripp Vinson, Doug Davison and Gianni Nunneri. Vertigo Entertainment, Initial Entertainment Group and Plan B Entertainment are also producing. The new spin on “Departed” revolves around a young cop who infiltrates a Latino gang in Chicago and battles the gang’s own plant in the police department. Like “Departed,” the series adaptation is also inspired by the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller “Infernal Affairs.”
Richman’s credits include creating and exec producing the 2010 ABC police drama “Detroit 1-8-7” and another ABC drama, 2013’s “Lucky 7.” “Departed” starred Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. The Warner Bros. pic won Oscars for best picture and director, adapted screenplay (for William Monahan) and editing (for Thelma Schoonmaker). It also grabbed a supporting actor nom for Wahlberg.
The Amazon project joins a long list of movie and TV reboots wending through the series development pipeline this year. Just last week, the CW set a new spin on “The Lost Boys” and CMT decided to tackle “Varsity Blues.”
