Ridley Scott was quick to secure the rights last year to Don Winslow's excellent crime novel The Cartel to adapt for the screen. He's now pushed 20th Century Fox, via his Scott Free company, to leap on the chance to make a deal for Winslow's next, untitled tome.
The new book doesn't even hit book stores both physical and digital until next June, but has naturally been attracting attention. It's a change from the drug cartel-focused stories that Winslow has become famous for, instead telling the story of a corrupt detective in the NYPD's most elite unite. The main character is Sergeant Denny Malone, who must choose between his partners, his family and his life when he has to stop racial tension boiling over in the city. No easy job when he's already bought and paid for by both Harlem drug gangs and the mob, and is trying to evade the federal investigators looking to take him down.
Winslow decided to offer the book first to Fox and Scott after working with them on his previous tome. “I have really enjoyed my collaboration with Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Steve Asbell and Shane Salerno on The Cartel, and I am thrilled this same team will be working together on what I feel is my most ambitious novel,” the author tells Deadline.
This one is naturally at an embryonic state and Fox is now looking for a writer to craft the adaptation.