Dope Thief | Apple TV+

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Update: the series has been rebaptized Dope Thief.

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Brian Tyree Henry is lining up his TV follow-up to FX’s Atlanta.

The actor, currently seen opposite Brad Pitt in the feature Bullet Train, will lead the cast of the Apple TV drama series Sinking Spring. The eight-episode drug ring drama is based on Dennis Tafoya’s book Dope Thief and is being written by Top Gun: Maverick scribe Peter Craig. Ridley Scott, whose Scott Free banner has a first-look deal with the streamer, will exec produce and direct.

Sinking Spring revolves around longtime Philly friends and delinquents who pose as DEA agents to rob an unknown house in the countryside, only to have their small-time grift become a life-and-death enterprise, as they unwittingly reveal and unravel the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern seaboard. [+]

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Dope Thief — Official Trailer | Apple TV+ - YouTube

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DOPE THIEF Interview: Cast & Creator Talk New Apple TV+ Series! - YouTube

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Peter Craig Explains How Co-Writing ‘The Town’ and ‘The Batman’ Paved the Way to ‘Dope Thief’

Dope Thief showrunner Peter Craig has quietly been one of Hollywood’s go-to writers for crime drama the last 15 years.

In 2010, Craig transitioned from a crime novelist to an in-demand screenwriter thanks to his co-writing credit on Ben Affleck’s crime thriller The Town. Craig then showed his versatility by adapting Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay into The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Part 2, before bringing his own crime novel, Blood Father, to the big screen in 2016. Since then, he’s collected a co-writing credit on Bad Boys for Life, as well as story credits on Top Gun: Maverick and Gladiator II. But he’s always returned to his bread and butter in the crime genre, most notably as the co-writer of Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

Based on Dennis Tafoya’s Dope Thief, Craig’s first foray into television premieres Mar. 14 on Apple TV+, and the 8-episode crime drama merges Craig’s primary interests and disciplines as a novelist and screenwriter. The limited series centers on two Philadelphia con men, Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura), who pose as DEA agents in an effort to shake down small-time drug dealers. That all changes when they pick the wrong house in rural Pennsylvania, forcing the two longtime friends to protect each other and their loved ones from threats far and wide.

Craig always wanted to put down roots in the crime genre, but he also doesn’t mind if the industry placed him there after The Town.

“In a way, I’m riffing on The Town again with Dope Thief. There’s an awful lot of callbacks to it that are mostly intentional, but some of them are unintentional,” Craig tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I just know that kind of world really well, and while I probably was put in this genre [by the industry], I’m also really happy to be here.”

Similar to his work inside Reeves’ “The Batman Epic Crime Saga,” Craig’s Dope Thief explores the many different levels of a criminal hierarchy, while also treating some of the perpetrators with a bit more empathy than you might find elsewhere.

“Philosophically, Matt Reeves and I think the same way. We think that, a lot of times, the actors [i.e. perpetrators] in a violent situation are also the victims in a violent situation,” Craig says. “This chain of violence and victimhood just goes on eternally.”

Over the last decade, many limited series have been produced and promoted as such until success compels the network or streamer to keep a good thing going. Recent examples include Shōgun, The White Lotus and Big Little Lies, prompting the limited series to be called “the new pilot.” While Dope Thief has exhausted its source material in the same way that Shōgun did, Craig is only now starting to ponder the idea of a second season.

“I do like that idea. I haven’t [given it any thought], but now that you’ve said that [the limited series in the new pilot], I will. If you think of this as a pilot, that’s perfect,” Craig admits. “I wrote the ending to resolve it, but resolve it so that it could go someplace else a few years later if you want it to.”

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Metacritic