FX is adapting CRIMETOWN podcast from The Jinx creators. Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart Pontier will write the series while the Hidden Figures helmer Ted Melfi will direct. The podcast explores organized crime and municipal corruption and how it shaped Providence, RI.

In addition to Smerling, Stuart-Pontier and Melfi Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson will executive produce the project. The latter also worked on the Hunger Games and American Crime Story.

Stuart-Pontier is a journalist and filmmaker. While being the editor, co-producer, and writer for The Jinx, he also edited the feature films Bleed for This, Martha Marcy May Marlene and the documentary Catfish.

Smerling is a film producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer who was nominated for an Oscar on Capturing the Friedmans. He produced Catfish the movie and Catfish Tv series, now on its sixth season.

Together Smerling and Stuart-Pointer produced The Jinx with Andrew Jarecki. The series explored the real case of real estate heir Robert Durst, who was a suspect in the deaths of three women over multiple decades.

Stuart Pontier is represented by WME and Hirsch Wallerstein and Smerling is repped by UTA and Hirsch Wallerstein.

April Dawn | Editorial Intern