At age 72, Patterson shows no signs of slowing down, and to date, the acclaimed series boasts twenty-nine instalments, with the most recent novel having arrived in 2019. As with most long-running or wildly popular book series, film adaptations are often a likely prospect. The mystery/thriller genre seems to work particularly well in this regard, with the likes of Jason Bourne and even James Bond having got their starts as well-received novels. So far, Patterson’s Alex Cross series has been adapted to the big screen on three separate occasions – Kiss the Girls (1997), Along Came a Spider (2001) and most recently in 2012 with Alex Cross. Unfortunately, despite the films having been well cast with Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry portraying Cross, all three failed to really connect with audiences and critics. It appears that what the lengthy and successful book series really needs at this point is to put the past attempts at adaptation behind it and take on a fresh start.
With such an extensive array of novels to choose from, the Cross series seems an obvious candidate for a successful TV series. Fans are sure to have their own personal favorites that would make an ideal starting point, but exactly how true a TV adaptation might be to the novels is unknown at this point. What is known is that the thriller/mystery genre has always been a hit with audiences in theaters and on television. The past failures to really ignite the Cross franchise with cinema-goers could be attributable to many things other than the material itself. Much of the previous lack of success could just come down to timing. An example of this is The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, which had its own share of adaptation problems until it was brought to Netflix late last year. The new series found instant success and there’s no reason to believe that a Cross series couldn’t do the same.
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Source: Variety
