Norman Reedus is turning Edward Gorey's dark comedy book Dancing Cats and Neglected Murderesses into a live-action TV show for AMC.
According to Variety, Reedus and his bigbaldhead partners JoAnne Colona and Amanda Verdon have been pursuing the rights to Dancing Cats and Neglected Murderesses for several years and will work on the series under their newly-set first-look deal with AMC Studios. This marks the first time the Edward Gorey Estate has allowed the late author's work to be adapted, with the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust pledging that all profits from the show will be donated to a variety of animal welfare organizations, in keeping with Gorey's love of animals.
Published in 1980, Dancing Cats and Neglected Murderesses includes the stories of twelve fictionalized women who come up with unique ways of murdering their victims. According to its description, their ranks include Nurse J. Rosebeetle, “who tilted her employer out of a wheelchair and over a cliff at Sludgemouth in 1898,” Mrs. Fledaway, who “laced her husband’s tea with atropine in the spring of 1903,” and Miss Q. P. Urkheimer, who “brained her fiancé after failing to pick up an easy spare at Glover’s Lanes.”
Gorey was a writer and illustrator famous for crafting darkly comical stories, along with pen-and-ink drawings depicting macabre characters and situations in Edwardian and Victorian settings. His influence can be seen in such modern works as Lemony Snicket's A Serious of Unfortunate Events and Tim Burton's collective filmography, particularly Burton's 2005 stop-motion animated feature Corpse Bride.
Reedus has played Daryl Dixon on AMC's The Walking Dead TV show since 2010 and will reprise his role in an upcoming spinoff series after The Walking Dead ends with Season 11. He is also the host of AMC's travel docuseries Ride With Norman Reedus, in which he and his guest stars travel across the U.S. on a motorcycle and explore different biker cultures while visiting a variety of locations. The show has aired for four seasons, with a fifth installment in the works.
Among the other projects being developed by Reedus and bigbaldhead are Sorority House Massacre, a TV series based on the 1986 cult horror film of the same name. At this time, no cast members, production start or release date have been announced.
Source: Variety