The "Cartel" trilogy crafted by writer Don Winslow has become one of the most respected and timely chronicles of the war on drugs and border issues in the US. It's no surprise that studios have already come calling, and while Ridley Scott was attempting to turn the story into a film, he'll now executive produce a series based on the trilogy for US network FX, home of shows such as Sons Of Anarchy and The Shield.
Kicking off with 2005's The Power Of The Dog, continued with 2015's The Cartel and this year's The Border, the trilogy spans a 45 year period and follows a DEA agent named Art Keller through America’s long running war on drugs. The through line is a blood feud between the DEA agent and Mexican drug kingpin Adan Berrera. Much like the actual drug war, the books are often shocking in brutality and raw in humanity, portraying Mexican cartel power struggles, narcos and cops on both sides of the border, traffickers and drug mules, lawyers, journalists, junkies, teen hit men, asylum-seeking children and political corruption from Mexico poppy fields to the White House.
Writer/director Shane Salerno, who works with Winslow as part of entertainment company The Story Factory, is on board to write the pilot with a showrunner still to be named. And, according to Deadline, while Winslow and Salerno won't directly run the series themselves, they'll be closely involved going forward. The new development reunites them with FX boss John Landgraf, who was a producer on UC: Undercover, created by the duo for US TV in 2001.
"I have known and respected Shane Salerno and Don Winslow for almost 20 years, and am beyond thrilled to be working with them again on the series adaptation of Don’s magnum opus – the trilogy made up of his three critically beloved and commercially successful novels, Landgraf said in a statement. "Don has masterfully woven his intricately detailed research into cartel’s and America’s war on drugs into what is widely regarded as one of the great crime epics of all time. Nothing excites the team at FX more than the daunting challenge of helping great creators make a television show as ambitious and good as the epically acclaimed books on which it will be based."
"We have long admired the excellence that John Landgraf and his creative team have built and sustained across many years at FX, which makes them the perfect creative partner for us," Salerno and Winslow say. "These books represent over twenty years of our lives and we care deeply about how they are adapted. We are excited to work with John and his team on what we hope will become the definitive television series on this subject matter."
Winslow's work is in the adaptation process in several places, including James Mangold's take on The Force and Satori, which has Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star.
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