Posted in: Current News, Editor's Picks TV News, Movies, Podcasts, Recent Updates, TV | Tagged: adaptation, cable, crime, Crimetown, fx, Gimlet, Gimlet Media, HBO, hidden figures, HRL, Marc Smerling, mob, organized crime, podcast, podcasts, providence, rhode island, series, streaming, Stuart-Pontier, Ted Melfi, television, The Jinx, true crime, tv

Crimetown: FX Adapting True Crime Podcast To Series

Hollywood's current love affair with podcast adaptations is starting to look like they've dived into the group mind-think that if something works well once, then it'll work even better if you do it a thousand times. With that said, the tidal wave continued on Wednesday with FX's announcement that it would be developing popular podcast Crimetown for series.

Podcast hosts/creators Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier (HBO's The Jinx) have been tapped to write the script; with Ted Melfi (Hidden Figures) expected to direct, and serve as executive producer alongside Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Color Force.

Though the series will explore the history of organized crime and municipal corruption in Providence, RI, the Crimetown podcast explores the ways that organized crime has shaped different American cities:

"Welcome to Crimetown, a new series from Gimlet Media and the creators of HBO's The Jinx. Every season, we'll investigate the culture of crime in a different American city. First up: Providence, Rhode Island, where organized crime and corruption infected every aspect of public life. This is a story of alliances and betrayals, of heists and stings, of crooked cops and honest mobsters—a story where it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Hosted by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier. New episodes out most Sundays at 2 pm."

In an interview with Interview earlier this year, Smerling explained why they focused on Providence:

"I have history there. I married a woman from Providence; she was Italian and from the hill next to Federal Hill, Smith Hill. I had gone there a lot in college—we met in college—and I noticed a strange culture that was also extremely interesting, this bisected city. You had College Hill and the beautiful campus of RISD and Brown, and then you had Federal Hill, where you'd get a bit of pasta and pizza, but also the craziness was still going on there. It was the early '80s. Then my father-in-law introduced me to Buddy Cianci at the Biltmore Hotel at the end of the bar. I was probably 19 and he struck me as this larger-than-life character. He had this way of casting his spell on you; he could seduce people and I was seduced. Not long after that, I remember reading about how he'd beaten a guy with a fireplace log. I got sucked into Providence. I love it; I love the city."

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