Oscar-winning “Son of Saul” filmmaker László Nemes is attached to co-write and direct the historical thriller limited series “Sickert,” which deals with one of the more interesting theories about the true identity of Jack the Ripper.
Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”) will produce and Adam Baroukh will co-write the series.
Set in London in 1888, the city is gripped by panic over Jack the Ripper’s brutal murders. German-British painter and visual artist Walter Sickert straddles both the world of art and high society, and that of the marginalised underclass whom he is drawn to paint.
The latter includes the very people Ripper is claiming as victims and Sickert becomes a person of interest in Scotland Yard’s murder investigation. The artist’s grip on reality soon begins to falter, and he starts doubting his own innocence and identity. Nemes says in a statement:
“My fascination for the first modern serial killer and for the mystery of the gothic world of Victorian London dates back to my childhood. I have the ambition to tell a story that is both epic and personal, frightening and illuminating, and to immerse today’s viewer in a universe that remains largely uncharted.”
The real Sickert’s work included haunting paintings of life in the ghettos of Whitechapel, where the Ripper found his victims, and his art was credited with having inspired other influential artists like Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud.
Nemes will also serve as executive producer alongside Rodnyansky, Stuart Manashil, and Michael Kupisk.
Various takes on the Jack the Ripper story have been made for the screen over the years, most notably the lavish 1988 ITV/CBS mini-series “Jack the Ripper” starring Michael Caine, Jane Seymour and Armand Assante; and 2001’s “From Hell” starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham.
Source: THR
