The UK Channel 4 mini-series, Red Riding, based on a series of four novels by David Peace, has been praised around the world. In fact it’s attracted so much attention that Columbia has now signed up to make a big screen, Hollywood version. They’re currently negotiating to bring director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Gangs Of New York) onboard the project.
The mini-series is a study of power and police corruption framed around the investigation of the disappearance and murder of several young girls by an evil serila killers. The three Red Riding ‘episodes’ were set in different years, spanning 1974, 1980 and 1983, with each instalment almost being a movie in its own right. However Variety reports that for the Hollywood version the action will be moved from Yorkshire to America, and that it’s likely they’ll try to compress the five hours of the mini-series into a single movie. That in itself is going to be an immensely tough job, and it’s difficult to see how they’re going to do it.
If both Zaillian and Scott do sign on the dotted line, it won’t be first time they’ve worked together, as they’ve previously collaborated on Hannibal and American Gangster.
Undoubtedly a lot of the fans of the original Red Riding will be up in arms about Hollywood trying to get in on the action, and we have to agree that at this stage, it’s difficult to see them turning such a complex and ambitious mini-series into a worthwhile single film. At least Zaillian and Scott are the type of people who at least have a chance of making it work.