High school students tackling cold cases – that is the premise of Killer Class, a crime drama in development at ABC. It is co-created by prolific creators/showrunners Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt (God Friended Me)– who will serve as showrunners — and Joe Webb, with veteran Ken Kwapis set to direct.
The project, from 20th TV, Kwapis’ In Cahoots and Rachel Kaplan’s Absecon Entertainment, is adapted from Keith Sharon’s article of the same name about a Tennessee high school social studies teacher who created an after school forensics class. The students in the class were given cold case files and, remarkably, they managed to crack a few.
“The fact that these kids and their teacher were able to solve cases that had been cold for decades blew me away,” said Kwapis, adding, “I thought: “Breakfast Club meets true crime.”
Inspired by true events, Killer Class tracks the unexpected formation of a HS Forensics Club that proves shockingly effective at solving real cold cases.
Lilien and Wynbrandt executive produce alongside Webb, In Cahoots’ Kwapis and Alex Beattie and Absecon’s Kaplan. In Cahoots’ Reynolds Anderson co-executive produces.
Lilien and Wynbrandt co-created and/or executive produced series God Friended Me, which earned them Humanitas Prize, the Quantum Leap reboot, Alcatraz and La Brea, the last of which they executive produced with Kaplan. They executive produce Netflix’s upcoming Harlan Coben series I Will Find You, and have projects in development with frequent collaborator Robert Hull. Lilien and Wynbrandt are repped by CAA. Range Media Partners and Todd Rubenstein.
A former Jeopardy! champ, touring musician, and Kaplan National Teacher of the Year, Webb most recently penned seven episodes of CBS’ FBI series as a supervising producer. He has also penned a YA tennis feature for Netflix. Webb is repped by WME, BE Management and Lichter, Grossman.
Kwapis received a directing Emmy nomination for The Office and, as a producer-director on Malcolm In the Middle, shared in its Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy nomination. He just completed directing the four-episode Malcolm revival with the original cast. Kwapis also directed an episode of the upcoming Office offshoot The Paper. Kwapis is repped by Code Entertainment and UTA.
Kaplan also served as executive producer on Lincoln Rhyme: The Hunt for the Bone Collector, The Baker and the Beauty, Wisdom of the Crowd and ur Boys. Her company Absecon Entertainment has multiple projects in development, including Amazon’s series about Barney’s New York. Kaplan is repped by attorney Patti Felker.
