Buccaneer re-teams with Hans Rosenfeldt to adapt CJ Tudor’s ‘The Chalk Man’

CJ Tudor

London-based scripted production firm Buccaneer is re-teaming with Hans Rosenfeldt to adapt another CJ Tudor novel, The Chalk Man, for the screen.

The Bridge and Marcella creator Rosenfeldt has boarded as screenwriter, marking the second time he has worked with Buccaneer on a CJ Tudor novel, following his adaptation of The Burning Girls, currently being produced by the company for Paramount+.

Set in a scenic English town with a dark underbelly, The Chalk Man follows Eddie “Munster” Adams and his four friends, at the cusp of becoming teenagers, who are whiling away their summer holidays playing on their bikes, having fun and in search of excitement and adventure.

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. It’s all fun and games until the chalk drawings are twisted in a sinister direction and one afternoon leads them straight to a dismembered body hidden in the woods.

Buccaneer is behind scripted titles such as Marcella for ITV & Netflix, Irvine Welsh’s Crime for Britbox & ITVX and The Burning Girls and The Doll Factory for Paramount+. The firm also partnered with LA’s Halcyon Studios in November to adapt another CJ Tudor novel – the post-apocalyptic thriller The Drift.

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