A24's UK outpost has acquired the television rights to London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth, the latest book from Patrick Radden Keefe [1]. The deal was announced five days before the book's publication date of April 7 -- a pace that reflects both A24's appetite for Keefe's material and the competitive market for prestige nonfiction adaptation.

The book tells the story of Zac Brettler, a London teenager who fell to his death from a luxury high-rise in 2019 [2]. His parents discovered he had been impersonating the son of a Russian oligarch and was entangled with figures in London's criminal underworld. Keefe first covered the story in a 2024 New Yorker article and expanded it into a book-length investigation [2].

Keefe is the author of Say Nothing, the account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that was adapted into an FX limited series for Hulu and Disney+ in 2024, and Empire of Pain, the Sackler family history [3]. A24 is also developing The Snakehead, his 2009 book about the Chinatown underworld [2]. The New York Times this week profiled Keefe as "as famous and admired on both sides of the law as is possible for a magazine writer" [4].

-- CHARLES ASHFORD, London