Scott Cooper, the director of the bleak western Hostiles and the upcoming horror film Antlers, is making his television debut with Angels & Demons, a true crime limited series based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning article by Thomas French. As reported by Deadline, the show - which is wholly unrelated to the Dan Brown novel and its 2009 film adaptation - will be written and directed by Cooper, although at this early stage it’s unclear where the show will finally end up.

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Image via Relativity Media

French’s article was published in the St. Petersburg Times in 1997, and it follows the murder of Jo Rogers and her two teenage daughters, whose bodies were found floating in Tampa Bay on June 4, 1989. French’s epic article covers the three-year investigation and subsequent arrest of serial killer Oba Chandler, who was identified after Chandler’s neighbor recognized a handwriting sample of the killer’s police had enlarged and posted on billboards. Chandler was convicted of first degree murder and executed in 2011.

Cooper is no stranger to grim stories and true crime, having directed a number of intense dramas as well as the 2015 film Black Mass about notorious mob boss Whitey Bulger. Cooper also directed Jeff Bridges in his Academy Award-winning performance in 2009’s Crazy Heart. Cooper’s anticipated horror film Antlers, about a young boy keeping a hideous monster hidden in his basement, was originally scheduled to be released this past April, but was delayed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Collider recently hosted a directors on directing panel featuring Cooper and Antlers producer Guillermo Del Toro for Comic-Con@Home which you can watch by clicking here.