MIPTV: 'Jack Reacher' Author Lee Child to Develop True-Crime Series

British production outfit Dancing Ledge will produce the series, which aims to dramatize tales of “real-life Jack Reachers.”

Best-selling novelist Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher books, has signed a deal with British production company Dancing Ledge Productions to develop a true-crime dramatic series called Lee Child: True Crime.

The series, announced at television market MIPTV on Monday, will feature dramatized versions of real-life stories focused on men and women who, like Child's fictional character Jack Reacher, “have been driven to stand up and put their lives on the line, fighting for justice in the face of great danger.”

Dancing Ledge, which developed Netflix series Delhi Crime and co-produced HBO's The New Pope starring Jude Law and John Malkovich, said they and Lee are currently discussing the project with potential showrunners.

“We all read thrillers and watch movies where an average person goes to extraordinary lengths, to defend family or tribe, or to seek justice,” Child said in a statement. “It turns out that reality goes even further — we have some amazing stories to tell, some of them barely believable, but they're all true.”

Dancing Ledge CEO Laurence Bowen said the show would offer “a completely fresh perspective on crime” by marrying “the magnetic, universal brand of a great author with real-life stories to offer its audience.”

Child's Jack Reacher books have been published in more than 100 territories and translated into 40 languages worldwide. The films based on his novels have grossed some $400 million at the global box office. Child's latest novel, Past Tense, was, simultaneously, a number one best-selling book in both the U.S. and the U.K.

Dancing Ledge is 25 percent owned by production group Fremantle.