Warner Bros. Moves Forward with Film Adaptation of Ross Macdonald's The Galton Case

Last October, we reported that Warner Bros. had optioned the film rights to the series of Lew Archer mysteries by Ross Macdonald. At the time, The Galton Case was expected to be first to be filmed and today we're learning that that is indeed the case with Peter Landesman writing the adapted screenplay. Originally published in 1959, The Galton Case is the eighth mystery in the series.

In The Galton Case, almost twenty years have passed since Anthony Galton disappeared, along with a suspiciously streetwise bride and several thousand dollars of his family's fortune. Now Anthony's mother wants him back and has hired Lew Archer to find him. What turns up is a headless skeleton, a boy who claims to be Galton's son, and a con game whose stakes are so high that someone is still willing to kill for them.

Lew Archer has been featured in several other screen adaptations. Paul Newman played the character — renamed Lew Harper — in two films, both from Warner Bros.: Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1976). The character was also featured in an NBC television series and made-for television movie, also for the same network. Peter Graves played Lew Archer in The Underground Man (1974), while Brian Keith played the private investigator in six episodes of Archer that aired in the spring of 1975.

As with most crime novel series adaptations, Warner Bros. is hoping to develop a new franchise based on the character.

(Related article: Deadline.)