Women’s Murder Club Updates: Is The James Patterson Adaptation Happening?

Is a new TV series based on author James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club still moving ahead? James Patterson is a prolific author who is arguably best known for his Alex Cross novels, with Morgan Freeman playing the character in both Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider. Tyler Perry inherited the role for 2012’s Alex Cross, which failed to kick off a planned movie franchise. The author is no stranger to his work being adapted either, with his sci-fi novel Zoo also turned into a CBS series that ran for three seasons.

Another famous James Patterson novel series is the Women’s Murder Club books. The first was 2001’s 1st To Die, with each subsequent novel featuring a number in the title, from 2nd Chance to 19th Christmas. The books follow a group of women from different professions, from detective to medical examiner, who investigate murder cases together. Patterson has largely co-written these best-sellers with authors Andrew Gross and Maxine Paetro, and the franchise was popular enough to receive some video games, including Women’s Murder Club: Games Of Passion for the Nintendo DS.

With over 20 books in the Women’s Murder Club series so far there’s plenty of material for a potential long-running TV show, but is a planned reboot still happening?

Women’s Murder Club Has Been Adapted Twice

Shortly after 1st To Die was published Highlander director Russell Mulcahy helmed a miniseries adaptation in 2003. It featured a cast that included Angie Everhart, Sean Young and Pam Grier, and it received mostly decent reviews. Women’s Murder Club was later adapted into an ABC procedural of the same name, which debuted in 2007.

Women’s Murder Club starred Angie Harmon (Rizzoli & Isles) and Laura Harris, but it received lukewarm reviews and ratings during its run. The series was cancelled after one season and Patterson was reportedly displeased with how the show was handled.

A Women’s Murder Club Reboot Was Reported In 2015

In 2015 Deadline reported a fresh take on Women’s Murder Club was being developed, which was being spearheaded by former 24 producer Tony Krantz. This reboot would have ditched the procedural element in favor of each season adapting one of Patterson’s novels, with 1st To Die being the logical choice for season 1. This would have also been the likely title to separate it from ABC’s adaptation.

The Women’s Murder Club Reboot Didn’t Happen

Over five years after news of a possible Women’s Murder Club reboot broke, there’s been next to no news on it. It’s likely the project didn’t get past the discussion phase, and while its entirely possible James Patterson could give his blessing to another future adaptation of the books, for now, there don’t appear to be any plans for one.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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