Executive Producers Mark Bianculli and Peter Traugott Discuss Adapting ‘The Bone Collector’ for Television
Sometimes a story comes along that begs to be made into a TV series. NBC’s new series, Lincoln Rhyme: The Hunt for the Bone Collector promises a unique crime story and has a loyal following.
Based on Jeffery Deaver’s best-selling crime series that started with The Bone Collector, the series follows a former NYPD detective and forensic genius named Lincoln Rhyme, who comes out of retirement and back into the fold when a notorious serial killer, known as The Bone Collector reemerges after three years. Rhyme has a unique connection to the case since a trap set by the killer left him paralyzed.
Now, he’s teamed up with Amelia Sachs, an MTA cop who wants to pursue a career as a profiler. The two will make a dynamic team whose unique set of skills might just bring this serial killer down.
Executive producers Mark Bianculli and Peter Traugott sat down with reporters at New York Comic Con to discuss what’s in store for the series, and how they approached adapting a 14-book series for television.
“We wanted to put a unique spin on it. In the book, Amelia really is just a street cop, a New York City cop, but we wanted to give her this different aspiration to become a profiler,” Bianculli explained.
“The one hole in Lincoln Rhyme’s genius is people almost if you will. He doesn’t give much attention to profiling people and he’s very strict on evidence solving crimes. Then he meets his counterpart, this woman that has her own ambitions and viewpoints and knowledge.”
“He learns to trust her. He learns to listen to her more, and they come together, and they become basically the super detective that neither of them was on their own.”
“Lincoln starts as a know-it-all. He doesn’t need another mind out in the field, he needs arms and legs, but he’ll come to realize, very quickly, that Amelia has a lot to offer, and her perspective is very different than his coming at it from a psychology standpoint, and that the two of them together will obviously be better than they will be apart,” Traugott elaborated.
Bianculli also talked about the research they put into various parts of the series including Lincoln Rhyme’s disabilities, mental conditions for Amelia, and the history of New York City, in addition to reading the fourteen books.
Bianculli also talked about the setting as a primal inspiration for the series and how that will tie into Lincoln’s unique take on forensics.
“New York is great because it’s a goldmine for history, I mean not every city in America goes back that far. You can open anything, or any book and you’re just hit with fun facts. Lincoln’s superpower really is that he takes forensic clues—but this isn’t CSI—he takes the clues they learn on CSI, but then kind of puts them through a lens of New York history,” Bianculli said.
When it comes to how much of the books will factor into the series, Bianculli says that fans shouldn’t expect storylines to be lifted directed, but should see details and touchstones that fans of the franchise will recognize. One example he gave was the inciting incident for Lincoln and Amelia’s first meeting.
“She stands in front of a moving subway train and won’t get out of the way of it,” Bianculli said. “And we were always fascinated by what would make someone do that. Especially someone not invested at all in this case. What kind of death wish does somebody have to preserve that just because they think it might be important.”
Traugott went on to explain how some characters from the books will appear episodically.
“There are certain characters and certain sub-stories within the books that lend themselves to closed-ended episodes that wouldn’t necessarily be big enough for season-long arcs, but you’ll see kind of as a homage in certain episodes,” Traugott explained.
Bianculli also talked about how they approached adapting a series from the source material.
“You have to find something that speaks to you, and then your voice and that voice becomes a little bit of a Venn Diagram, it overlaps. So the things that we love, like the crackling dialog from the books, we try to emulate that in the script, but also we just took pieces of the characters that we love, that we thought were the heart of it, and made that our interpretation of it.”
Traugott also discussed The Bone Collector and his relationship to Lincoln Rhyme. Particularly the payoff that fans can expect from the season-long arc.
“The audience will know right away who The Bone Collector is and how he factors into Lincoln’s life,” Traugott said. “Lincoln won’t know that until probably three-quarters of the way through the season.”
While this season of the series will focus on the hunt for The Bone Collector, there is potential for the series to continue past the first season. Traugott says there is a payoff to the story so that the audience won’t feel like there’s just another twist added.
“The way we’re paying it off, The Bone Collector could still be a part of subsequent seasons, if we so choose,” said Traugott.
The interview ended with Bianculli talking about one of the things he loves best about their characters: the vulnerability they exhibit and the adversity they face.
“We love that our people aren’t superheroes in capes that are invincible. They’re quite vincible, as it were, and that’s proven very early on. And they have to overcome a lot of obstacles internally and externally and that’s the thing that we grabbed onto the most.
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector premieres Friday, January 10th at 8/7c on NBC.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.