HBO Picks Up ‘Cormoran Strike’ Limited Series Based on J.K. Rowling Novels

HBO and J.K Rowling are joining forces again.

The pay cabler has acquired the U.S. and Canadian rights to Cormoran Strike, the limited series based on the Harry Potter author’s crime novels, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

From BBC One, Cormoran Strike centers on Strike (War and Peace star Tom Burke), a war veteran turned private detective operating out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street. Though he’s wounded both physically and psychologically, Strike’s unique insight and his background as an Special Investigation Branch investigator prove key in solving three complex cases which have eluded the police.

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Cormoran Strike will be broken up into three separate event series, starting with the three-hour installment The Cuckoo’s Calling, followed by The Silkworm and Career of Evil, each of which will run two hours.

Ben Richards (The Tunnel) wrote Cuckoo’s Calling and Silkworm, and Tom Edge (The Last Dragon Slayer) penned Career of Evil. Michael Keillor (Line of Duty) will direct the first chapter. J.K. Rowling will executive produce through her banner, Brontë Film & TV, along with Neil Blair, Ruth Kenley-Letts and Elizabeth Kilgarriff.

The project was first announced by BBC One in fall 2015, and filming will begin this fall in London.

Cormoran Strike brings Rowling back to HBO, which also aired the miniseries adaptation of her novel No Vacancy in 2015 (also produced by BBC One).

Rowling published the Cormoran Strike novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, beginning with Cuckoo’s Calling in 2013 (she was not revealed as the author until three months after the book’s release). The three books are best-sellers, with a fourth expected in 2017.

In addition to Cormoran Strike, Rowling is also busy with the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film series, the first of which is set to hit theaters Nov. 17.