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Fremantle and Archery Pictures are co-producing Moriarty, a modern crime-procedural reinvention of the Sherlock Holmes nemesis from writer Chris Cornwell.
The Sherlock Holmes universe is getting another spin-off. Fremantle and Archery Pictures have set Moriarty, a new crime drama centered on the detective’s archenemy, with writers Chris Cornwell and Oliver Lansley attached.
Deadline broke the package. The trade’s first look at the Cornwell-Lansley scripts and the Kris Thykier-Fremantle producing partnership reports that the project is being developed without a network attached yet, with Fremantle handling global sales out of the package.
The premise repositions Moriarty entirely. He is a Professor of Criminal Psychology at Durham University with a secret second life as the mastermind behind every sophisticated crime in the North of England.
The twist is his forced cooperation with the police. When a rival criminal threatens Moriarty’s underground empire, he agrees to join the force as a consultant, using law enforcement against his rival while concealing his own identity.
His new partner is the catch. He is paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, described as “a stoic Yorkshire detective,” whose increasingly perceptive suspicions will become the real threat to Moriarty’s cover.
The Hollywood Reporter sourced the synopsis directly. THR’s writeup of the official synopsis and the Burrows-versus-Moriarty central tension quotes Kris Thykier, Archery’s founder, calling the project “a playful, dark, and thrilling dive into the psychology of villainy.”
Fremantle’s pitch leans on the procedural framework. Rebecca Dundon, the company’s SVP of scripted content, called the project a “commercial, returning franchise” that will provide “a fresh spin on the procedural crime format with an unconventionally brilliant protagonist at the heart.”
Cornwell and Lansley each bring genre pedigree. Cornwell wrote on A Discovery of Witches and Strike Back, while Lansley’s credits include Where’s Wanda? and Flack.
Archery has a recent run of premium credits. The company, founded by Thykier in 2014, produced the awards-circuit drama Operation Mincemeat, Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga, and the Bradley Cooper romcom Is This Thing On?.
Moriarty is the latest in a Holmes-franchise build-out. Wikipedia’s catalog of Moriarty’s literary origins and on-screen incarnations notes that the professor first appeared in The Adventure of the Final Problem in 1893 and has been adapted across film and television for more than a century.
Television has not been short on Moriartys. Andrew Scott played him in Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss‘ BBC drama Sherlock, while Ralph Fiennes, Jared Harris, Eric Porter, and Dónal Finn have all stepped into the role across film and TV.
Finn currently plays the character on Prime Video’s Young Sherlock. Randall Park plays a contemporary version of him in CBS’s Watson spin-off, one of several Holmes derivatives in active production at the moment.
Casting on the Fremantle-Archery series has not been announced. With the Holmes property still working through multiple adaptations across networks, the field of actors will not be small.
