Project marks first under deal with Blackbees Television Company.

Michael Garcia

Route One Entertainment has optioned all media rights to the George Sueño and Ernie Bascom book series from Mexican-American author Martin Limón for development as a TV series.

The project is on the fast track and will be the first under the company’s first-look production deal with Blackbees Television Company signed in March.

Blackbees CEO Michael Garcia (pictured) will serve as executive producer along with Route One CEO Russell Levine and director of development and production Sophia Dilley. 

The book series written by Limón, who served five tours in Korea, contains 11 investigative crime novels and a collection of short stories that take place in and around the US Army base in Seoul, South Korea in the 1970s. 

At the heart of the stories are sergeants Sueño and Bascom, soldiers in the US 8th Army Criminal Investigation Division.

The first novel in the series, Jade Lady Burning, was published in 1992 and was a New York Times notable book of the year. The 12th novel, The Nine-Tailed Fox, will be released this October.

“This is one of the best detective series out there, and it’s unique in its exploration of the exotic world created by the mix of American and Korean cultures,” Levine said. “Sueño and Bascom feel like real people, and their adventures and relationships create the type of emotional and character-driven drama  that audiences are hungry for today.”

“I am proud to be partnering with Route One in what I hope will be an eye-opening endeavor,” Limón said. “With the possibility of a wall being built between Mexico and the United States, and an on-going crisis on the Korean Peninsula, this series, I believe, will shed new light on a world that many in the viewing public have not even imagined to exist.”