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Emma Laird (L) and Thomas Doherty (R) Karwai Tang/WireImage; Michael Buckner/Variety The people want what they want — and apparently right now, that looks like two hot serial killers getting their freak on. Amazon MGM Studios is moving forward with its dark rom-com based on the viral serial killer romance novel Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver.
Deadline reported Thursday that Thomas Doherty (Paradise, Tell Me Lies) and Emma Laird (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Mayor of Kingstown) will star in its leading roles. The script was written by Laura Kosann — the writer currently adapting Ali Hazelwood’s steamy BDSM swimmer romance Deep End. The film will be directed by Chris McKay (The Lego Movie, Renfield) and released globally on Prime Video — a choice that feels linked to the difficult nature of making the film true to the book’s explicit sexual material and descriptions of murder, torture, gore, and cannibalism.
Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in Weaver’s comedic romance series, the Ruinous Love Trilogy. It follows two serial killers, Sloane and Rowan, who begin a flirtatious relationship by scheduling an annual murder competition targeting their fellow serial killers. But as the game continues, the two are forced to reckon with their changing relationship — and hopefully keep each other from becoming another serial killer’s prize.
