Amazon MGM Studios has announced a series order for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a darkly comedic murder mystery from Fifth Season and Made Up Stories, based on the bestselling book series by Benjamin Stevenson.
You‘s Penn Badgley will star, with David Hemingson (The Holdovers) set as showrunner and executive producer. Badgley returns to Amazon after wrapping a starring role opposite Meghann Fahy in their forthcoming rom-com You Deserve Each Other — also from Fifth Season, along with Likely Story. The project gets off the ground at Amazon MGM after an attempt at series development of the book at HBO.
Set deep in the dense mountains of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone follows Ern Cunningham (Badgley), a mystery-writing expert who reluctantly attends a family reunion to welcome his brother Michael home from prison — the same brother Ern helped convict. When a frozen body appears and a snowstorm traps everyone inside, the deaths begin to mount. Everyone in his family has already killed someone — either by accident or otherwise.
Mariner Books published the book in 2022. It’s Stevenson’s first in an internationally bestselling series, dubbed Ernest Cunningham Mysteries, whose fifth installment is currently in the works.
Hemingson exec produces alongside Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky and Jeanne Snow of Made Up Stories, Molly Allen, Badgley and Stevenson. Fifth Season and Made Up Stories are producing and will together serve as the studio.
Fifth Season and Made Up Stories reteam following collaborations on series including The Good Daughter and Wolf Like Me for Peacock, Roar for Apple TV+, Nine Perfect Strangers for Hulu, Pieces of Her and Anatomy of a Scandal for Netflix, The Last Anniversary for AMC and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart for Prime Video.
In a statement on the series order, author Stevenson shared, “I am blown away by the vision and enthusiasm everyone has for bringing this book, and Ernest Cunningham, to the screen. Penn perfectly captures Ern’s clueyness and cleverness, and David has brought bags of wit and heart to the script. With the passion of Amazon MGM Studios, Bruna and Steve behind us we have an absolutely killer team, and I can’t wait to solve a murder with them!”
Peter Friedlander, Amazon MGM’s Head of Global Television, added: “Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is a brilliantly inventive series that subverts the murder mystery genre in the most unexpected and entertaining ways. Ben created a world that is darkly funny and wickedly clever. Paired with David’s sharp storytelling and Penn’s magnetic presence, and with our incredible partners at Fifth Season and Made Up Stories, this series is going to be something truly special for Prime Video.”
No stranger to murder, nor successful book adaptations, Badgley is coming off of a starring turn as serial killer Joe Goldberg in the hit thriller series You, based on the book series by Caroline Kepnes, which originated at Lifetime before moving to Netflix for its final four seasons. Otherwise best known for starring in The CW’s Gossip Girl, his upcoming slate includes the Bleecker Street thriller NDA, in addition to You Deserve Each Other. He is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, CAA, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
Oscar-nominated for his script The Holdovers, the holiday dramedy directed for Focus Features by Alexander Payne, Hemingson also produced that film, marking the screen debut of Tony‘s Dominic Sessa. Otherwise best known for creating the ABC series Whiskey Cavalier, the writer-producer has also worked on The Catch, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, Kitchen Confidential and myriad other series. He is repped by 3 Arts, WME, and McKuin Frankel & Whitehead.
A stand-up comic, as well as an author, Stevenson’s books have sold over a million copies in 29 territories. The latest in his Ernest Cunningham series, Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief, released in March. He is repped by Leslie Conliffe at Intellectual Property Group and Pippa Masson at Curtis Brown Australia.
English (US) ·