A major new episodic television drama was announced yesterday during the inaugural Dream Factory symposium at Liverpool’s International Festival for Business (IFB2014).

Partners Red Union Films, Pinewood Pictures, and international distributor and financier IM Global will co-produce 8 X 60 minutes of Liverpool-set crime thriller THE KILLING POOL, based upon the best-selling novels by Kevin Sampson.

THE KILLING POOL is adapted from the first in a series of Liverpool-set thrillers featuring drug surveillance specialist DCI Billy McCartney. In Series One, McCartney unpeels the layers of an inter-continental heroin-dealing dynasty, forcing him to confront his ultimate nemesis.

The announcement was made by writer and Red Union partner Kevin Sampson, IM Global Founder and CEO Stuart Ford, and Steve Christian, Director of Pinewood Pictures.

The series plans to start production in early 2015.

Sampson commented:

“I’m delighted to be making THE KILLING POOL with such eminent and experienced partners as Stuart and Steve. And to bring this calibre of production to our home city gives Stuart and myself an added buzz. Baltimore, Copenhagen, Louisiana, Malmo – now Liverpool Noir is set to make its mark.”

Ford commented:

“THE KILLING POOL has all the ingredients to be a phenomenally successful international thriller series and we’re delighted to be onboard with Red Union and Pinewood.”