A24 adapts London Falling

A24’s United Kingdom arm has acquired Patrick Radden Keefe’s *London Falling* for television, moving on the project before the nonfiction book had even reached shelves. (variety.com) Variety and Deadline reported the deal on April 2, 2026, and said the rights process was competitive. The book, published by Doubleday in the United States and Pan Macmillan in Britain, went on sale April 7. (variety.com) (penguinrandomhouse.com) Keefe’s book follows the 2019 death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, a London teenager whose parents later discovered he had been posing as the son of a Russian oligarch. The published description says their search for answers pulls them into private clubs, luxury property and criminal networks beneath wealthy London. (npr.org) (penguinrandomhouse.com) The adaptation extends A24’s business in Britain, where the company has been building a local development slate rather than only buying finished films. It also keeps Keefe in A24’s orbit: Variety reported that A24 is already developing his book *The Snakehead* as a separate project. (variety.com) Keefe has become a repeat source for screen adaptations because his reporting arrives with built-in characters, chronology and legal documentation. FX turned his 2018 book *Say Nothing* into a limited series, and Netflix previously adapted his reporting on the Sackler family into *Painkiller*, on which Keefe was an executive producer. (variety.com) (pbs.org) The story itself began before the book. Longreads identified Keefe’s February 5, 2024 New Yorker piece on Zac Brettler as the magazine article that preceded *London Falling*, and Deadline said the television series is being adapted from that reporting and the new book. (longreads.com) (deadline.com) Recent interviews around the book’s release have filled in the case details that make the material attractive to television. NPR said Zac Brettler died after entering the Thames from a London apartment building in November 2019, while The Guardian reported that a coroner later recorded an open verdict rather than a conclusive finding on how he died. (npr.org) (theguardian.com) Keefe has tied the case to a wider portrait of London money and image-making. Penguin Random House’s description says the book examines “posh mansions and private nightclubs,” and Keefe told interviewers the city functions as a haven for hidden wealth and reinvention. (penguinrandomhouse.com) (yahoo.com) No writer, cast, network or release window has been announced for the series. For now, the clearest signal is the speed of the pickup: A24 bought *London Falling* before readers had finished meeting Zac Brettler on the page. (variety.com)