EXCLUSIVE: You wait years for a bus, then two arrive at the same time. That’s the Word Trainspotting that Irvine Welsh used to reflect on how two of his early TELEVISION projects were unveiled the same week. That the ads clashed was a natural coincidence, he says, but satisfied by the Scottish blacksmith.
BritBox revealed last week that Welsh had partnered with Buccaneer Media to adapt his 2008 crime novel as one of his first original British dramas, while a day earlier, British manufacturer Burning Wheel Productions said he was participating with American writer Psycho Bret Easton Ellis for pen American Tabloid, a series about sensationalist press culture in the United States
The Crime adaptation has been in progression for about 4 years and represents the first series commissioned through Welsh after its well-established feature film, which began in 1996 with the iconic reimagination of Trainspotting through Danny Boyle. The origins of Crime TV go back to a possible encounter between the Welshman and actor Dougray Scott, a football match involving his beloved Hibernian FC. It turns out that Batwoman actor Scott is also a big fan of Crime and his central character, the troubled detective Ray Lennox.
“It has become a task of non-unusual passion,” Irvine told Deadline. “Dougray was certainly amazing. He told me he was born to play this part. I’ve never seen an actor so motivated to play a role before.”
The book follows Lennox after having fled to Miami from his hometown of Edinburgh after a cocaine-induced intellectual aptitude crisis and a harrowing investigation into child sexual murder. Most of the story takes place in Florida, with Lennox concerned in an effort for some other victim of sexual predation. The television series, however, focuses on Lennox’s tenure in Edinburgh.
“Most of the novel takes place in Miami, however, during the first six episodes, we focus on the component taking position in Edinburgh, which represents only about a quarter or a fifth of the novel. There’s so much in this story. It’s almost like an original story: how he’s become a sex offender hunter,” Welsh says. “In addition to seeking to solve a crime in real time, he also faces his own demons. He’s a pretty messy, addicted, addicted guy, and he’s looking for sex offenders for treatment for himself.”
Welsh has plunged back into the world of Lennox and says it has enough novelties to shape two new novels, as well as the BritBox series. “Obviously, there’s more to expand for television,” he adds, saying he’d like to go back to the story of Miami’s novel about fish out of water. Welsh obviously appreciated the new challenge of writing for television, reveling in the biggest canvas on which to paint stories. However, he admits that it has not been easy to move from cinema to a new medium.
“With film you’ve got the three-act structure, where you establish the character, throw some stones and you get the payoff at the end. With TV you’ve got to do that right across the whole series, but you’ve also got to do it for every individual episode. We want somebody to look at episode three and say, ‘That was a f*cking great bit of television’ without watching episodes one or six. It’s a challenge, but the advantage is you have so much extra time,” says Welsh.
The editor has finished drafting 4 scripts and doing the other two is now his priority. This means that the task is much more complex than that of the American tabloid, which is in the early stages of development. Many studies have been conducted, but Welsh still has to sit down with Easton Ellis to find out how much of the writing tasks are. “Bret and I have been friends for years, but we never work together. It will be attractive and educational for neither of us,” he says.
The inspiration for the series is the origins of the National Enquirer, the nearly 100-year-old American publication owned by American Media. National Enquirer stands out for its celebrity approval and has made headlines in recent years for its Donald Trump campaign at the White House and the publication of intimate highlights about amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ love affairs. Welsh was reluctant to give too many details about the series, but said it had been a real “turning point” for buyers.
He says the closure was a productive period. “He made me paint. Writers are looking for distractions. With the closure of pubs and clubs, this means I can’t pass out and DJ, which means I get up early in the morning. I’ve rediscovered the ethics of painting in a big way,” he says. At first glance, Welsh will be busy for a while.
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