A24 Wins Bidding War to Adapt Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s We Are the Dead

 A24 heads to the Tower of London for its upcoming crime thriller series We Are the Dead.

A24 Wins Heated Auction for TV Adaptation of 

We Are the Dead

A24 is heading into the shadows of one of Britain’s most infamous landmarks.

The studio has secured the television rights to We Are the Dead, the upcoming crime thriller from author Laura Shepherd-Robinson, after reportedly beating out nearly 20 competing bidders in a heated auction. The adaptation will be developed by A24’s UK division, overseen by Piers Wenger and Rose Garnett, though the project remains in early development with creative talent and casting yet to be announced.

Set against the eerie historical backdrop of the Tower of London, We Are the Dead begins with a murder that hasn’t occurred there in three centuries: a brutal beheading. The victim is the former Commander of the British Army who oversaw the military community living within the Tower’s walls, and the case quickly becomes one of national importance.

Enter Brontë Hayes, the head of a London police unit responsible for investigating crimes of national sensitivity. As she digs into the decapitation, the investigation threatens to unravel secrets buried deep within one of the United Kingdom’s most symbolically powerful locations.

The novel marks a shift for Shepherd-Robinson, whose previous works have been historical novels including The Art of a Lie, The Square of Sevens, and Daughters of Night. We Are the Dead will be her first contemporary crime thriller, and early buzz suggests the book is being positioned as the launch point for a potential series centered on Hayes.

The manuscript made a major splash at last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, igniting the competitive bidding war despite the fact that the book won’t even be published until next year and currently has no cover.

For A24, the acquisition continues its expansion into prestige television from its UK arm. The division recently brought on Heartstopper executive producer Patrick Walters and has a slate of upcoming series in development, including Apple TV+’s The Husbands starring Juno Temple, the Channel 4 soccer drama Major Players, and Michaela Coel’s next project First Day on Earth for the BBC and HBO.

With a centuries-old fortress, a grisly murder, and a politically sensitive investigation at its core, We Are the Dead feels tailor-made for the kind of atmospheric, character-driven storytelling A24 has become known for.

And if the Tower of London’s history is any indication, the setting alone carries more ghosts than most thrillers could invent.