Rupert Sanders And ‘Breaking Bad’ Scribe Team For Drug Drama ‘90 Church’
AsBreaking Badenters its home stretch, writer/producerGeorge Mastrashas found a new place to get his drug drama fix. The Emmy-nominated scribe will adapt theDean Unkefermemoir90 Church: The True Story of the Narcotics Squad from Hell, which Universal acquired last year forRupert Sanders(Snow White and the Huntsman) to direct.
WhereasBreaking Badfocuses mainly on the guy cooking and selling the drugs, though,90 Churchwill center on the ruthless agents trying to catch that guy. Hit the jump for more details on the project.
Unkefer’s autobiographical tome chronicles his time at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the ’50s and ’60s, fighting organized crime alongside about 30 other agents in the area. The title refers to the bureau’s address in New York. The organization, a predecessor to the modern DEA, employed brutal tactics in their war against mobs and drug cartels. Eventually, their fearsome reputation attracted the attention of politicians, who called for an investigation.
Mastras has been withBreaking Badsince Season 1, working mainly as a writer and producer. He earned an Emmy nomination this year for the Season 5 episode “Dead Freight,” which he also directed. In addition, he has written for episodes ofThe Dresden Filesand the short-lived proceduralThe Evidence.
Sanders' other current projects include the Frederick Forsyth adaptationThe Kill Listand the sci-fi love storyThe Juliet.
90 Churchwas published this past spring in the U.K. Here’s the synopsis fromRandom House:
In 1968, alarmed politicians launched an ill-fated investigation into the Bureau’s operations. Accusations were made against the agents, and now fighting a war on two fronts, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was dissolved and its agents discredited.
Though some names and sequences have been changed to protect identities, 90 Church is the real story of a young agent’s downward slide into hell as he falls victim to addiction, deception, violence, and shifting loyalties.
