The Bone Collector is about to be collected by NBC. The Peacock Network is moving forward with a serial television adaptation of the Jeffery Deaver crime novel-turned 1999 movie, which starred Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. However, the small screen adaptation will brandish the title, Lincoln, named after investigator main character Lincoln Rhyme.
Last November, NBC committed to bringing the murky murder mystery of The Bone Collector to television with a premium script – adapting Deaver’s original 1997 novel of the same name – by the duo of VJ Boyd (S.W.A.T., The Player, Justified) and Mark Bianculli (Doomsday, The Jury, The Good Neighbor). The series – a production of Universal Television and Sony Pictures Television in association with Keshet Studios – will see the scribes joined by executive producers in Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott, and Rachel Kaplan.
Directing the Lincoln pilot will be Seth Gordon, who – besides films like Baywatch, Identity Thief and Horrible Bosses – brings TV experience from episodes of The Goldbergs, The Good Doctor, Modern Family, The Office and the pilot of Sneaky Pete.
Lincoln TV Series Cast
The cast of Lincoln just added a new trio of regulars, as Deadline reports.
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Ramses Jimenez (Vida, Fear the Walking Dead) will play Eric Ortiz, described as “an NYPD detective and Sellitto’s (Imperioli) new partners.
Brooke Lyons (The Affair, Life Sentence) will play Kate, described as “an invaluable addition to the investigative team.”
Roslyn Ruff (Madame Secretary, Divorce) will play Claire, Lincoln’s caregiver.
Arielle Kebbel recently joined the cast of NBC’s Lincoln, as reported by Deadline. Rounding out the primary trio of the series, Kebbel will play Amelia Sachs, described as “a young beat cop who helps him hunt the deadly mastermind while also taking on the most high-profile cases in the NYPD.” The character is the television manifestation of Angelina Jolie’s Bone Collector character, Amelia Donaghy, this time brandishing the original book-adherent surname, “Sachs.”
Kebbel recently fielded a run as the co-star of NBC’s supernatural drama, Midnight, Texas, which just ended its run this past December. She’s also known from runs on TV shows like The Vampire Diaries, Ballers, The League, UnREAL, 90210, Grounded for Life and Gilmore Girls, as well as film appearances in Fifty Shades Freed, Think Like a Man, The Uninvited, The Grudge 2 and John Tucker Must Die.
Michael Imperioli was revealed via Deadline as the series co-star, set to play Rick Sellitto, the NYPD detective partner to Russell Hornsby’s Lincoln. Imperioli will, of course, be forever associated with his Emmy-winning 1999-2007 role of the wayward Christopher Moltisanti on HBO’s peak television pioneer, The Sopranos (which has a prequel TV movie in the works), but he’s been showing up recently on several TV shows, with runs on shows like Project Blue Book, Hawaii Five-0, Lucifer and Californication. He’s also known from film roles in The Lovely Bones, Summer of Sam, Bad Boys and, most memorably, Goodfellas.
Russell Hornsby (pictured in the title image,) is set as the star of Lincoln, as Deadline first reported. He will play Lincoln himself, inheriting the mantle of the character famously played by Denzel Washington in the 1999 film; a legendary forensic criminologist, seriously injured in his chase for the elusive Bone Collector, who is called back to aid young beat cop Amelia Sachs in the continuing hunt for the serial killer.
Hornsby, who’s probably best known to genre fans as the co-star of NBC’s 2011-2017 supernatural series, Grimm (which has a spinoff developing), has since been fielding TV runs on Seven Seconds, The Affair and Proven Innocent, and banked film appearances in Creed II, The Hate You Give and Fences. His pre-Grimm CV consisted of TV runs on Lincoln Heights, In Treatment, Haunted, Playmakers and Gideon’s Crossing.
Lincoln TV Series Details
The story of 1999’s The Bone Collector centered on Lincoln Rhyme (Washington), a forensic genius who, left paralyzed after an occupational accident, is in retirement. However, the retirement would be short-lived, thanks to a young cop named Amelia Donaghy (Jolie), who seeks Lincoln’s help in her quest to track down a New York City-stalking serial killer who surgically removes the bones of his victims to leave as provocative puzzle clues for the police.
Deaver’s novel would kick off a sizable series of follow-up novels, with the literary franchise – last supplemented by 2014’s The Skin Collector – currently up to 11 books. However, The Bone Collector is still widely associated with the 1999 movie, which was directed by Phillip Noyce, who worked off an adaptation screenplay by Jeremy Iacone. Besides serving as a platform for Oscar-winning superstar Denzel Washington, the film was a key rung on which the then-burgeoning stardom of Angelina Jolie ascended.
Lincoln certainly sounds like an intriguing TV murder/mystery adaptation for NBC, even if its very existence could be perceived as a slap in the face to fans still frustrated by the network’s 2015 cancellation of the genre-similar Hannibal.
We’ll keep you updated here on NBC’s Lincoln as things develop!
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.