EXCLUSIVE: As The Lincoln Lawyer is filming its fifth and final season, David E. Kelley has set out to adapt another Michael Connelly crime novel for television, the 2024 bestseller Nightshade.
The project, titled Welcome To Catalina, is in development at HBO Max under the streamer’s model for drama procedurals intended to return each year with sizable orders and moderate cost. The model was introduced by the Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt which produces 15 episodes a year.
Written by Kelley, Welcome To Catalina centers on Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell who has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor.
Kelley executive produces with Matt Tinker, President of his David E. Kelley Productions, as well as The Lincoln Lawyer team of A+E Studios’ Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson, Ross Fineman of Ross Fineman Entertainment and Connelly. HBO Max is the lead studio, with A+E Studios as co-studio.
In addition to Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, which Kelley created based on Connelly’s novel The Brass Verdict, Kelley previously tackled Michael Connelly’s short story Avalon. The adaptation, set at ABC, also was a cop drama set on Catalina Island with a female L.A. Sheriff’s Department Detective lead, Nicole “Nic” Searcy, played by Neve Campbell. It ultimately didn’t move forward.
All of HBO Max’s projects under the drama procedural model come from creators and showrunners with extensive broadcast experience who have delivered 20+ episodes a season. Kelley certainly falls into that category with a slew of network hits earlier in his career such as the Emmy-winning The Practice and Ally McBeal and more recently Big Sky on ABC. Kelley’s Connelly series adaptations as well as Big Sky have all been with Fineman and A+E Studios.
David E. Kelley Productions’ current slate includes Apple TV’s new comedy series Margo’s Got Money Troubles and drama Presumed Innocent, both headed into Season 2, HBO’s Emmy-winning Big Little Lies, which is closing in on a third season, and the recently announced Myron Bolitar series for Netflix.
Kelley is repped by CAA and Gendler, Kelly & Cunningham.
