Starz Developing Series Adaptation Italian Crime Drama Romanzo Criminale

Starz is developing an adaptation of the Italian crime drama Romanzo Criminale. The series script is being written by Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville, Spartacus), who will also serve as the showrunner.

The original series aired on Italy's Sky Cinema in 2008 and was based on Giancarlo de Cataldo's 2002 novel of the same title. The storyline was centered on a gang that controlled Rome's heroin trade during the 1970s and 1980s.

The US version will be set in Philadelphia roughly a decade earlier, and will depict the rise of a gang of working-class criminals on a quest for the "American Dream" … no matter what the cost.