Steve McQueen To Helm Movie Adaptation Of British TV Series Widows

Cast your minds back. All the way back to yesterday, in fact, when we learned that 12 Years A Slave‘s Steve McQueen had finally confirmed his next film. Touted as a the perfect shoo-in for the director, he opened up about the biopic he had always wanted to shoot about his childhood hero, Paul Robeson. So, colour us a trifle confused in light of today’s news that he’s actually remaking British TV series, Widows. Either McQueen is aiming for a double-shoot schedule wherein he lenses two films simultaneously, or he’ll film them one after the other.

According to THR, who bagged the exclusive, McQueen will be tackling the Widows adaptation first, and it will be a big screen feature, not a series remake. The project is being headed up over at New Regency, who will oversee production by McQueen and The King’s Speech producers Iain Canning and Emile Sherman. The aim is to get preproduction on the project in full swing by the year’s end.

The original series was penned by noted crime author Linda LaPlante and set in London, circa 1983. The story about three recent widows ran for three seasons up until 1995. A big fan of the original, McQueen intends to re-write the adaptation, switching the location from England to a major U.S. city. In his version, the trio of women who unite to finish a job after their husbands are killed during a heist, will be rounded out to four.

It’s unknown who the director has in mind to tackle the leading roles, but you can expect there’ll be quite a scramble. His past works have proven to be bold and unapologetic, meaning, we might get the chance to see some strong, yet unsympathetic female characters. There’s no doubt a major shortage of those types of roles for women, so keep your eyes on Widows, which looks set to impress already.