Channel 4 Nabs the ‘Ripper’

Jack the Ripper, eat your heart out. The Yorkshire Ripper, aka Peter William Sutcliffe, terrorized West Yorkshire, England from 1975 to 1980, killing a total of 13 known women and assaulting many others.  While Sutcliffe may have called upon Jack for inspiration, this serial killer is still kicking it in the mental ward of Broadmoor Hospital. And now according to Variety, Channel 4 will be calling upon Sutcliffe for inspiration, as the British public-service broadcaster preps for a trilogy of films based on the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.

The three pics are based off of the books by David Peace, three-fourths of his “Red Riding Quartet” series (the fourth of which will be worked into each). With Sutcliffe’s crimes as a backdrop, Peace turns attention to the corruption of the police force. The West Yorkshire police fell under the fire for being inadequately prepared such an investigation, when Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981. He was questioned nine times by police within six years prior to his arrest. Sutcliffe claimed it was “God’s will” for him to commit his accused crimes.

Revolution Films (A Mighty Heart, The Road to Guantanamo) will be producing the pics, which Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) adapted for the screen. Three separate directors are attached to the trilogy, all of whom have worked with Channel 4 previously. Julian Jarrold is set to direct Nineteen Seventy Four. Jarrold should have no problem with this one, as a veteran of the TV pics.  The helmer recently made some noise in 2007 with Becoming Jane. James Marsh (Man on Wire) will direct Nineteen Eighty. Marsh first garnered attention in 1999 for his documentary Wisconsin Death Trip, about the bizarre series of disasters that befell a small town in the 1890s. He most recently directed Man on Wire.  Anand Tucker with finish it off with Nineteen Eighty Three, who is most well known for his take on the Steve Martin-penned Shopgirl. Tucker’s latest, And When DId You Last See Your Father? recently opened to limited release. The directors will be working with a $10 million budget.

The films will be first aired as a TV series, with a likely theatrical release in the U.K.  to follow, and perhaps with the directing talent named above will somehow find itself in U.S. theaters down the road.

An adaptation of Peace’s novel The Damned United is currently lensing.  The pic follows Brian Clough’s notorious 44-day reign as coach of the Leeds United soccer team.  For more info on Peace’s Red Riding Quartest, click here.