Red Planet Pictures extends relationship with Our House author Louise Candlish

ITV drama Our House centres on property fraud

Death in Paradise producer Red Planet Pictures has extended its relationship with author Louise Candlish, known for her twisty crime novels, following their collaboration on ITV drama Our House.

The multi-layered deal includes options on two of the author’s novels and broadens the working relationship between Candlish and the Asacha Media Group-owned prodco to develop new originals together.

The writer will work with Red Planet Pictures executive producer Tom Mullens, who produced the company’s previous Candlish adaptation Our House, to create new drama ideas for the small screen along with the adaptations of her novels The Swimming Pool and The Only Suspect.

The former book was published in 2016 and will be developed with producer Elizabeth Kesses-Delport of EJK Productions, while the latter is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in February 2023. Our House writer Simon Ashdown is attached to adapt.

The projects join adaptations of Megan Hunter’s The Harpy and Antony Johnston’s The Exphoria Code on Red Planet Pictures’ slate.

Our House aired on ITV earlier this year and centred on a woman who comes home to find strangers moving into her house, inspired by the real-life phenomenon of property fraud.

Candlish’s books have sold more than 1.5 million copies in the UK and been translated into 17 languages in at least 25 countries.

Candlish said: “I was blown away by Red Planet’s adaptation of Our House for ITV and am very excited to be collaborating on more stylish, high-calibre dramas. We share a passion for twisty, suspenseful storytelling that takes the audience into dark scenarios that could oh so easily happen to any one of us.”

Belinda Campbell, joint managing director of Red Planet Pictures, said: “Louise is a tremendous talent and is hugely successful and much loved, both in UK and across the globe.

“She has an uncanny knack of elevating a psychological thriller in a classy and captivating manner and is so on point reflecting contemporary life, weaving current issues and life experiences into her intense web of storytelling.”