Fremantle and Archery Pictures Collaborate on Moriarty
A modern reinvention of the crime procedural, based on the most famous villain in all of detective fiction.
Fremantle and Archery Pictures are teaming up to develop Moriarty, a modern reinvention of the crime procedural series centered on James Moriarty, the iconic arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. The series is created by Chris Cornwell and Oliver Lansley.
Key Details
- The Premise: In this modern take, Moriarty is a Professor of Criminal Psychology at Durham University who secretly masterminds sophisticated crimes throughout Northern England. When a rival criminal attacks his underground empire, he joins the police as a consultant to use the law against his foe while hiding his true identity.
- The Pairing: He is paired with Detective Imogen Burrows, a stoic Yorkshire detective.
- Development Status: The project does not yet have a network attached. Fremantle will handle worldwide sales. Casting has not been announced.
Previous Portrayals
Andrew Scott, Ralph Fiennes, Jared Harris, Eric Porter, and Dónal Finn have each portrayed Moriarty in various adaptations. Dónal Finn currently plays the character in Prime Video's Young Sherlock, while a CBS spin-off, Watson, features Randall Park in the role.
Behind the Series
"We are thrilled to be working with Fremantle to bring to life the original and character driven spin off from the Sherlock Holmes universe that Chris Cornwell has created."
Kris Thykier, founder of Archery Pictures, added: "Moriarty will show audiences what it takes to be a criminal genius, combining genre thrills with a playful, dark, and thrilling dive into the psychology of villainy."
"We instantly saw huge potential for a commercial, returning franchise that brings to life one of the more allusive characters in the Sherlock world."
Rebecca Dundon, SVP Scripted Content at Fremantle, said: "We’ve been looking for a project to work with Archery on for a while and when Kris brought this to us, we instantly saw huge potential for a commercial, returning franchise that brings to life one of the more allusive characters in the Sherlock world."
Note: Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Holmes.