With his "American Crime" anthology series performing well for ABC (a second season was ordered), John Ridley is a creative in demand, following his Oscar win for scripting "12 Years a Slave," last year. There’s also the scripting he’s doing for MGM’s remake of the classic sword-and-sandals epic "Ben-Hur;" and he’s developing a new Marvel series also for ABC, which is being described as a "reinvention" of an existing Marvel superhero character; although no word on who that character is, as details are being kept under wraps; and finally, he sold a new crime drama pilot also to ABC titled “Presence," which will follow a former Army Counter Insurgency Operative named Presence Foster, beginning a new career as a private investigator in Los Angeles. 

I should note that Ridley recently inked an overall deal with ABC that will see the writer/director/producer develop new projects for the studio.

We can add today’s news to the mix.

Ridley has teamed up with Michael McDonald to optioned author Kim Reid’s award-winning 2007 “No Place Safe: A Family Memoir,” for ABC to produce. 

Winner of the Colorado Book Award in Creative Nonfiction, here’s a summary of the literary work from Booklist: "Part mystery thriller, part coming-of-age story, and part civil-rights history, this gripping memoir is set at the time of the horrific Atlanta child murders and told through the eyes of a young African American teen whose mom is a cop on the task force searching for the serial killer. Just after the first two bodies are found in 1979, Kim, 13, enters a white private school in the suburbs, far from her inner-city neighborhood. Over the next two years, a total of 29 black boys are found dead. Is the killer a Klansman type? Could he be a black man? The racism at school is ugly. No one there cares about the murdered inner-city kids. So why does Kim stay in the fancy school? Is she playing white? Is she running for safety? As the climax builds, and her mom brings home more and more details of the murder investigation, Kim’s personal conflicts are as intense for her as the terror outside."

Anyone read it? If so, enlighten the rest of us. I’ve added it to my to-read pile, after ordering it on Amazon moments ago. If you’d like to pick up a copy of Reid’s memoir, click here.

Ridley and McDonald will produce what will be a limited series. It’s still early in the process, so no word on casting, or when the series can be expected. 

Variety was first to report the news of Ridley’s option.