News

Death in Paradise producer Red Planet Pictures and writer Ryan Calais Cameron are teaming up to adapt Mike Phillips’ novel Blood Rights for the screen.

Writer and broadcast journalist Phillips’ novel is the first in a series featuring the charismatic investigative journalist Sam Dean. First published in 1989, it explores the relationship between the UK and the African diaspora.

The novel was republished in 2022 and is being adapted as a 6×60’ contemporary thriller which peels back the layers of modern British society.

Calais Cameron, co-founder and artistic director of multi-award-winning theatre company Nouveau Riche, will work with Red Planet Pictures exec producer Tom Mullens.

Mullens was also producer of the ITV hit drama Our House and is working with author Louise Candlish on further adaptations and original content.

Calais Cameron’s play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy was a sell-out at London’s Royal Court theatre in 2022, with the production set to transfer to the Apollo Theatre in the West End this spring.

His other stage credits include Retrograde, a play about actor Sidney Poitier during the golden age of Hollywood; Queens of Sheba, with co-writer Jessica Hagan; and Typical, starring Richard Blackwood.

The book deal was negotiated by Rebecca Watson of VHA on behalf of Antony Harwood and Alex Jones, joint MD at Red Planet.