The Chalk Man second C.J. Tudor book to be adapted for TV by Hans Rosenfeldt and Buccaneer Media

We are thrilled to announce that C.J. Tudor’s bestselling debut novel The Chalk Man has been picked up for TV adaptation by Buccaneer Media. This is the third of C.J. Tudor’s titles that Buccaneer have acquired after The Burning Girls and The Drift. It is being adapted for screen by Swedish writer Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge, Marcella) who also adapted The Burning Girls which is due to be released on Paramount+ later this year, starring Samantha Morton and Ruby Stokes. 

With The Chalk Man, C.J. Tudor first established her talent for storytelling and her place as one of the UK’s top horror writers, winning the Barry, Strand Magazine and ITW Thriller Awards for Best First Novel, The Golden Bullet Award at the Norwegian Krimfestivalen and The Cabot Cove Award at The Dead Good Reader Awards. The Chalk Man was also shortlisted in the Crime & Thriller Category at the National Book Awards, the Hebban Thriller Club Award and was longlisted for Crime Writers’ Association Ian Flemming Steel Dagger Award. It was an international sensation, selling in around 40 territories. 

Set in a pretty English town with a dark underbelly, Eddie “Munster” Adams and his four friends, at the cusp of becoming teenagers, are whiling away their summer holidays playing on their bikes, having fun and in search of excitement and adventure. When a new teacher, nicknamed ‘The Chalk Man’ by the school kids, gives Eddie the idea of using an unwanted birthday gift of a tub of chalk as a way for his friends to leave each other messages around town in their own secret code. All fun and games. That is until the chalk drawings are twisted in a sinister direction and one afternoon leads them straight to a dismembered body hidden in the woods.

A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year, The Chalk Man is more than just a coming of age thriller, there’s a hint of the supernatural at play along with themes including bullying, poverty, violence and hypocrisy. The novel features a plethora of characters with a need to preserve secrets and reputation and alternates between the time in 1986 when Ed was 12 years old to the present day where he is single, has few friends and is borderline alcoholic. 

C.J. Tudor said: “The Chalk Man was the book that started it all for me, so it has a special place in my heart. I couldn’t ask for a better team than Buccaneer and the brilliant Hans Rosenfeldt to adapt it for screen. I know they’ll produce something amazing” 

Richard Tulk-Hart, joint CEO of Buccaneer said: “We’re naturally delighted to be developing another of C.J. Tudor’s gripping novels, particularly as The Chalk Man is her celebrated debut work. We’re excited to be once again marrying C.J.’s compelling storytelling with Hans Rosenfeldt’s world class screenwriting to create another premium screen thriller for audiences around the world”.

Congratulations C.J. Tudor! And look out for more information about where and when you can watch The Burning Girls later this year.