‘Red Widow’ CIA Drama Based On Book In Works At Fox With Sarah Condon Producing

EXCLUSIVE: Fox has put in development Red Widow, a one-hour thriller CIA drama based on Alma Katsu’s forthcoming book, which Sarah Condon (HBO’s Bored To Death, Looking) is executive producing. A search is underway for a writer to pen the adaptation via an open writing assignment.

In Red Widow, the lives of two women CIA agents become intertwined around an internal threat to the Agency’s Russia Division. Red Widow looks at two female agents as they navigate the mostly male world of intelligence. The novel captures the kind of thorny, manipulative behind-the-scenes machinations that take place inside intelligence headquarters that only a true insider would know.

Author and former NSA/CIA senior intelligence analyst Katsu, whose book Red Widow is set for release March 23 by Putnam, is attached as an executive producer. Fox Entertainment is the studio. The project is not related to the 2013 ABC series Red Widow and the Dutch drama it was based on.

Katsu spent three decades in intelligence as a senior analyst and in management at CIA and NSA. She has also been a senior analyst at RAND and currently is a consultant to government and private industry on technology forecasting and analytic methods. Her most recent novel The Deep is a reimagining of the sinking of the Titanic and its sister ship the Britannic. She is best known for The Hunger, an award-winning reimagining of the story of the Donner Party with a horror twist. The Hunger made NPR’s list of the 100 Best Horror Stories and was named one of the best novels of 2018 by the Observer, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets. The Taker, her debut novel, was named a Top Ten Debut Novel of 2011 by Booklist and has been published in over ten languages. It was the first in an award-winning trilogy that includes The Reckoning and The Descent. Katsu is repped by Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company, Richard Pine and Eliza Rothstein of Inkwell Management, and attorney Allison Binder of Goodman Genow Schenkman.

Condon most recently served as executive producer on Dare Me, which aired for one season on USA Network. She previously served as an executive producer on all three seasons of HBO’s Bored To Death and on both seasons of Looking. She also was an executive producer on HBO’s Mrs. Fletcher. Condon is repped by Bob Myman at Myman Greenspan Fox.