Incendo and BlackBox to adapt "Ellery Queen" into a TV series

Production companies Incendo and BlackBox Multimedia have optioned the TV adaption rights to the "Ellery Queen" collection of novels and short stories and will co-develop and co-produce a high-end scripted series together. "Ellery Queen", the lead detective hero of the novel series as well as the pseudonym used by the books’ authors, cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, is one of the most popular American mystery novel series ever published. The books remain huge international bestsellers and have also established a massive fanbase in territories such as China. Shifting the setting of the stories to the modern day, the television series will be adapted to a contemporary world, and the lead role will be cast as a female detective rather than a male as is in the novels.

Giuliano Papadia, CEO and Creative Director at BlackBox Multimedia says “'Ellery Queen' is one of the most definitive series of detective fiction to ever be written. The stories have been global favourites for a huge part of the 20th and 21st Centuries. They have fascinating plots, unique characters, and settings you love to get lost in. The team at Incendo are the perfect partners for helping modernise this excellent and timeless series of stories.”

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to develop a new series, based off an already established, globally successful IP,” added Gavin Reardon, International Sales & Co-Production Executive. “In collaborating with the creative minds at BlackBox Multimedia, we are eager to discover the reimagined version of the novels come to life on screens around the world.” 

Richard Dannay and Rand B. Lee of Jabberwocky Literary Agency said “When our fathers first sat down to begin the collaboration that would become 'Ellery Queen', they never would have dreamed that they would then embark on a forty-year journey together, or imagined the remarkable success that Ellery Queen would attain. All of us in the Lee and Dannay families are thrilled to be working with BBMM and Incendo, which have both been so respectful and admiring of the rich Ellery Queen tradition, in crafting a new chapter on the screen for our shared legacy.”