EXCLUSIVE
:
HBO
may have found their next murder mystery limited series obsession. In a competitive situation, the premium network, partnered with
Bruna Papandrea
‘s Made Up Stories and Endeavor Content, has landed rights to Australian comedian and author Benjamin Stevenson’s new novel
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
. It will be developed as a limited series.
Over the past few years, HBO has found commercial and critical success with unconventional murder mystery limited series, starting with
Big Little Lies
(which originated as a limited series), followed by
The Undoing
,
Mare Of Easttown
and
The White Lotus
. Papandrea was an executive producer on both
Big Little Lie
s, which won eight Emmy Awards, and
The Undoing
, HBO’s most watched series of 2020. Like
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
, they were both based on books.
In
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone,
three years ago, when teacher Ernie Cunningham witnessed his brother Michael kill someone, he immediately turned him in to the police. Shunned by his well-known criminal family for this betrayal, they have now invited him to a reunion at a snowbound mountain retreat. But when the dead body of an unidentified man is found frozen on the slopes, Ernie decides to investigate the truth behind his death — and the suspicious involvement of his murderous family.
Stevenson executive produces alongside Made Up Stories’ Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Jodi Matterson and Jeanne Snow.
Stevenson’s first novel,
Greenlight,
was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction, and published in the U.S. and UK. His second novel,
Either Side of Midnight
, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Original Paperback. His novella,
Find Us,
was an internationally bestselling audiobook.
Everyone in My Family Has Killed
Someone, Stevenson’s third novel, will be published March 29 by Penguin Random House Australia, which is handling international publishing rights, and August 18 by Penguin Random House (Michael Joseph) in the UK. An auction for U.S. publishing rights is underway.
The publisher describes
Everyone in My Family Has Killed
as “Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle meet
Knives Out
and
The Thursday Murder Club
in this fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern
murder
mystery.”
Made Up Stories and Endeavor Content previously collaborated on Hulu’s popular limited series
Nine Perfect Strangers
and the recently launched genre-bending romantic comedy series
Wolf Like Me
for Peacock and Stan. Projects in various stages of production include the Netflix thriller
Pieces of Her
, starring Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote;
Anatomy of a Scandal,
starring Sienna Miller and Michelle Dockery, for Netflix; the Spectrum Original series
Long Slow Exhale
, starring Rose Rollins; the anthology series
Roar
for Apple TV+, starring Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo, Merritt Wever and Alison Brie; and the Amazon Prime Video series
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart,
starring Sigourney Weaver.
At HBO/HBO Max, Endeavor Content has the HBO series
Scenes from a Marriage,
starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, and the upcoming HBO Max series
Tokyo Vice,
starring Ansel Elgort, Ken Watanabe and Rinko Kikuchi. The indie studio’s upcoming series also include
Life & Beth
for Hulu and
Severance
for Apple TV+.
Stevenson is repped by Curtis Brown Australia and Intellectual Property Group.