Today turned out to be a weirdly good day for TV adaptations of Oscar-nominated noir films; close behind Fox ordering a pilot for a TV series version of Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, Deadline reports that CBS has granted a pilot order for L.A. Confidential.
Based on the Curtis Hanson classic, the show will follow the plot of James Ellroy’s original novel, as multiple detectives try to work out the whos and whats of a murder in 1950s Hollywood. (Hopefully without any of them becoming increasingly difficult for us to talk about or enjoy as the years go on.) This is actually the second time a TV version of the novel has gotten to the pilot stage; Kiefer Sutherland and Eric Roberts shot one back in 2003, but it was never picked up to series.
L.A. Confidential is just one of several pilot orders CBS made today; the network also picked up a new show teaming up TV mega-producer Greg Berlanti and A Wrinkle In Time director Ava DuVernay. Titled Red Line, the politically charged series centers on an incident in which a black doctor is shot by a white cop in Chicago, and the ensuing fallout from that moment. There’s also The Code, about military lawyers, and Main Justice, a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced show based on the life and career of former Obama-era attorney general Eric Holder.