William Monahan Creating CRIME For Starz

Atlas Entertainment is producing its first television series, CRIME, in partnership with Henceforth Pictures for Starz and Sonar Entertainment. Written by Academy Award(R) winning screenwriter, William Monahan (The Departed) CRIME is a study of criminal enterprise and scandal across 1960s Britain. The project was developed from a feature film treatment by Vanessa Sadler. Regarded for its proven ability to produce both tentpole films and independent features, Atlas Entertainment will step into the television landscape with CRIME.

The project in development is being executive produced by Atlas Entertainment's Charles Roven and William Green alongside Monahan, with Atlas' Andy Horwitz and Henceforth Pictures' Justine Suzanne Jones co-executive producing. Starz and Sonar Entertainment are financing development and Sonar Entertainment has the option to distribute the show to markets around the world outside of Starz's pay television and home entertainment rights in the U.S.

Independent Talent's Josh Varney was instrumental in arranging the deal with Monahan and setting the project into motion. Starz will assume all domestic pay television and home entertainment rights, including Canada, to the series.

"We're thrilled that our first foray in television has us working with the incredibly talented William Monahan on this unique show, and we're excited to be sharing it with audiences not only in the U.S. but around the world," said Charles Roven.

"There's very little more interesting to me than the Sixties in Britain," said Monahan, "taken from Profumo to psychedelia, from the London criminal world to the worlds of art and fashion - all of which continually intersected. I know one thing: it's very, very, funny."

"Set in a time and place that continues to fascinate, CRIME is a story that easily cuts across borders and cultures," commented Stewart Till, CEO, Sonar Entertainment. "William Monahan's script comes alive with an immediacy and intimacy that audiences will embrace with unqualified enthusiasm."

"We are excited to be working with William Monahan on one of his passion projects," said Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director of Starz Entertainment. "CRIME is the kind of unique storytelling that elevates scripted television for audiences."

A dramatist, director and novelist, William Monahan recently completed the screenplay for The Gambler for Martin Scorsese and producer Irwin Winkler at Paramount, and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. He won an Academy Award(R) for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, which earned four Oscars(R), including Best Picture. Additionally, Monahan collected a Writers Guild of America Award and earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for his work. His production company, Henceforth Pictures, has a number of feature and television projects in development, including a screen adaptation of his first novel, Light House, and "The Throwaways", a New Yorker piece by journalist Sarah Stillman. Production on his original thriller, Mojave, begins in the first quarter of next year with Atlas Independent's William Green producing along with Monahan and Atlas's Andy Horwitz executive producing along with Henceforth's Justine Suzanne Jones.