Blood Defense earns pilot commitment from NBC. The planned courtroom procedural based on the novel from famed prosecutor Marcia Clark will go to series depending on the network’s response to the pilot.
The order means that Blood Defense will be the second TV program to draw from Clark’s extensive experience as a lawyer in recent years. The first of course was FX‘s American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, in which Sarah Paulson played her as she sought to convict the former football player for the murder of his wife. Although the novel Blood Defense is based on is fiction, the characters and story parallel people and events from Clark’s early legal career:
Based on Blood Defense and drawing from the personal experience of Clark, who started her career as a defense attorney, the show centers on Samantha Brinkman, a relentless criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles whose world is turned upside down when she is hired to defend a police detective in a high-profile homicide, thrusting her into the public spotlight and exposing dark secrets from her past.
Clark, Craft and Fain executive produce with Mandeville’s David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Laurie Zaks.
Blood Defense is the first in a series of crime novels featuring Samantha Brinkman. It was published in May 2016 from Thomas & Mercer, with a second book, Moral Defense, slated for release in November.
Mandeville executives got a copy of Blood Defense a couple of months ago from UTA, which reps both the company and Clark. They liked the prospects of the book as a basis for a TV series and met with Clark just as People vs. O.J. Simpson was finishing its run. She partnered with them, and ABC Studios acquired the book series in April in a competitive situation.
Leave your thoughts on NBC ordering a pilot for a TV series based on Marcia Clark’s novel Blood Defense (via Deadline) in the comments section below. For more Blood Defense photos, videos, and information, visit our Blood Defense Page, and consider subscribing to us by Email, “following” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or “liking” us on Facebook for quick updates. Blood Defense will air at some point on NBC in the near future.