David E. Kelley (The Lincoln Lawyer) is adapting another Michael Connelly crime novel, the 2024 bestseller Nightshade, for television. Deadline reported that the project, titled Welcome to Catalina, is in development at HBO Max "under the streamer's model for drama procedurals intended to return each year with sizable orders and moderate cost. The model was introduced by the Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt, which produces 15 episodes a year."
Written by Kelley, Welcome to Catalina centers on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Stilwell, "who has been 'exiled' to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor," Deadline noted.
Kelley executive produces with Matt Tinker, president of David E. Kelley Productions, as well as The Lincoln Lawyer team of A+E Studios' Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson, Ross Fineman of Ross Fineman Entertainment and Connelly. HBO Max is the lead studio, with A+E Studios as co-studio.