When Fox ‘s new detective drama Murder in a Small Town premieres in September, it will include a dedication to the late Donald Sutherland , who died on June 20 . Not only because his son, Rossif Sutherland , is the star of the series, but because Donald himself tried to get the books on which this series is based adapted into a movie decades prior. Rossif was completely unaware of his father’s connection to the story until after he was already offered the lead role.
Murder in a Small Town is an adaptation of LR Wright’s Karl Alberg book series (there are nine novels total). Getting the Canada-set books adapted for the screen was a passion project for Donald for years, writer Ian Weir told Deadline . The actor first learned of the story when reading Weir’s script for the film, which prompted him to read the books.
He fell in love with them immediately and stayed invested in getting them adapted. He wanted to play George, the prime suspect in the first book, titled The Suspect . (TV Insider exclusively debuted the Murder in a Small Town trailer on August 21.
See below.) Two years ago, and almost three decades after Donald first became interested, the screenplay was read by former USA Network president Jeff Wachtel, and Donald was still attached to play that character. Wachtel was launching his production company, Future Shack, at the time.
Fox took on the story from Future Shack, part of its appeal being that it was a Canadian production and could therefore film during .