“Station 19” writer and co-exec producer Ilene Rosenzweig is bringing Mary Higgins Clark’s “I”ll Be Seeing You” to the small screen. She’s joining forces with Reel One Entertainment, Element 8 Entertainment, and La Sabotière on the adaptation of the crime novel, which she’ll be writing and exec producing. Deadline confirmed the news.
Despite selling over 100 million copies worldwide, Higgins Clark’s novels have never served as inspiration for a TV series. Rosenzweig is looking to change that — she’s developing the project as “an open-ended anthology series with each season inspired by a different Higgins Clark novel and a different crime, with over 40 titles to choose from,” the source details. Stories will be set in downtown Manhattan and the suburbs of New Jersey.
The first season, based on “I’ll Be Seeing You,” tells the story of an ambitious TV journalist who returns to her hometown when her father goes missing. Her all-consuming investigation “takes her down a rabbit hole of conspiracy and murder,” and she’s “unaware that she’s being watched by a stalker, who will inadvertently help her uncover the story of her career – and her family’s dark secret.”
The series will be shot in Toronto and New York in 2020 and feature “a diverse cast of strong female characters.” Discussions with broadcasters in the U.S. and Europe are taking place.
“Early in my career I loved watching crime series. I enjoyed challenging myself to solve the mystery before it was revealed at the end. I’m delighted that my stories will be used to entertain a new generation of TV crime series fans,” said Higgins Clark. “It will be fun to see how the TV writers will develop and expand my plots and characters!”
Rosenzweig, whose other credits include “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” and “Lipstick Jungle,” added, “I was into these books growing up because Mary writes characters you want to be: cool women with glamorous jobs and aspirational/cosmopolitan lives who are suddenly thrust into incredibly dangerous situations – and yet remain relatable. You can’t help wondering, what if that happened to me? What would I do in that situation? At the heart of every book is an everyday woman who is put to the test and finds her inner superhero!”
