EXCLUSIVE: Captain Marvel writer-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are set to direct the first four episodes of Prime Video‘s Criminal, a drama based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
Criminal was ordered to series in January and is currently in pre-production in Portland. Brubaker, who penned the pilot script, co-showruns with crime fiction author Jordan Harper (Hightown).
The TV show is described as an interlocking universe of crime stories. As Brubaker explained to Deadline in a 2019 interview, “Criminal tells the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.”
Brubaker and Harper executive produce alongside Phillips, Sarah Carbiener, Phillip Barnett and Legendary Television. The series is produced by Amazon MGM Studios.
Up next for Boden and Fleck— who co-wrote the 2019 Marvel film Captain Marvel (with Geneva Robertson-Dworet) and co-directed the Brie Larson-starrer—is the feature Freaky Tales, produced by MACRO and EOne and executive produced by musician Too $hort. The project premiered on opening night at the Sundance Film Festival.
Previously, the duo wrote and directed the film Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling, who received an Academy Award nomination for his performance. The film also won Movie of the Year at the AFI Awards, received Spirit Award nominations for Best Screenplay and Director and Best Film, Director and Breakthrough Performance at the Gotham Awards that year. They next wrote and directed the independent film Sugar, an introspective sports drama following the life of talented Dominican baseball player Miguel “Sugar” Santos, which won Movie of the Year at the AFI Awards and received a Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
In 2010, Fleck and Boden wrote and directed It’s Kind of a Funny Story starring Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis and Zoë Kravitz. Their next project, Mississippi Grind, starred Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds and was released by A2. In TV, they directed and produced the Emmy-winning limited series Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett at FX for Hulu and recently finished directing Masters of the Air, executive produced by Tom Hanks/Playtone and Steven Spielberg for Apple TV+.
They are both represented by WME and Entertainment 360.