Ripper Trilogy in the Works

By Johnny Butane
July 8th, 2008

Over in the UK Channel 4 is prepping three of the four books in David Peace’s “Red Riding Quartet” for films, all adapted by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas penner Tony Grisoni, according to Variety. Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker will direct.

Why only three of the four? Maybe because trilogies are easier to sell than quartets? With a budget totaling $10 million, Nineteen Seventy-Four (Jarrold), Nineteen Eighty (Marsh) and Nineteen Eighty-Three (Tucker) will be filmed, following the long search for the infamous Yorkshire Ripper, aka Peter Sutcliffe. The hunt lasted from 1974 to his capture in 1981. Sutcliffe is currently serving multiple life sentences.

The films are being made as a TV series in the UK with a possible theatrical release to follow, but they will be packaged as strictly theatrical everywhere else so assuming they do well, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing them all. Keep it here for more news soon!

- Johnny Butane