ABC takes on The Count of Monte Cristo

From DHD – Temple Hill, the production company behind the Twilight franchise, is developing a contemporary retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo for ABC. Mike Kelley (Swingtown) is writing the project, which gives the classic tale a feminine spin, as it follows a mysterious young woman who comes to the Hamptons to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family. Kelley, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen are executive producing.

Temple Hill is also behind the contemporary Romeo & Juliet project in development at ABC.

Book Jacket:

On what slender threads do life and fortune hang.

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.