Barrie Dunn (Black Water), the creator of the long-running Canadian mockumentary series Trailer Park Boys is going dark with plans of bringing the true crime novel Blood in the Water to life. The rights to the story were optioned by his company Pictou Twist Pictures, as reported by Deadline. 

True crime is still being consumed at rapid and ravenous paces, and there is no sign that it’s slowing down anytime soon. Blood in the Water is sure to shock and consume audiences as it tells the story of a murder at sea in a small Canadian town. 

Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes is a true crime novel written by Silver Donald Cameron (The Education of Everett Richardson). A Canadian journalist, Cameron told the extraordinary story about a small town plagued by a vigilante named Philip Boudreau. A convicted criminal, he would steal lobster from local fisherman along with several other crimes involving theft and violence. Eventually Boudreau was murdered in cold blood by fishermen who caught him attempting to vandalize their lobster traps at sea. 

Pictou Twist Pictures and and Ion Inc. procured both the television and film rights to the national bestselling novel. Denise Bukowski, Dunn’s literary agent, released a statement which was picked up by Deadline:“We are delighted to have negotiated a deal with Barrie Dunn and Patrick Graham for the film and TV rights to Blood In The Water…It is not merely a story of murder for lobster as was portrayed in the media. It’s much more complex than that. Philip Boudreau’s murder was gut-wrenching and you feel incredible sympathy for him. Yet it’s also hard not to empathize with the lobster fishers who killed him.” 

Along with Bukowski, Dunn himself commented on adapting the novel in a statement picked up by Deadline: “It is a dark, compelling story, but not without its humour…Philip Boudreau was a rogue and a rascal, a character not unlike the type we often met and saw portrayed sympathetically in Trailer Park Boys.”

Pictou Twist Pictures is aiming to tell stories that involve social issues including true crime, political thrillers, and comedies. Blood in the Water will fall somewhere in the middle.