Aldis Hodge to Play James Patterson’s Alex Cross in Amazon Series

A television adaptation of James Patterson’s “Alex Cross” series has been ordered at Amazon Prime Video, the streamer announced today.

Titled “Cross,” the series follows Alex Cross, a detective and forensic psychologist reeling from the murder of his wife, as he takes on cases while juggling his relationship with his children. Aldis Hodge will star in the series as Cross, in addition to producing. The news broke on the same day word came out that Showtime canceled his drama series “City on a Hill,” co-starring Kevin Bacon, after three seasons. The “City on a Hill” cancellation actually predated the “Cross” news by a few months, a person with knowledge of the cancellation decision told IndieWire, but Showtime had been able to keep it under wraps until now.

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The series is created and showrun by Ben Watkins, whose prior credits include creating the Amazon legal drama “Hand of God” and writing the USA Network series “Burn Notice.” He executive produces along with Sam Ernst, Jim Dunn, and Craig Siebels. Patterson executive produces via James Patterson Entertainment with Bill Robinson and Patrick Santa, while David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Bill Bost executive produce for Skydance Television. Paramount Television Studios produces the series.

Patterson published the first “Alex Cross” book, “Along Came the Spider,” and the series has since spanned 30 novels, with at least one new installment released every year since 1999. The series has become the famously prolific Patterson’s most bestselling works, and have been adapted into film three times: “Kiss the Girls” and “Along Came the Spider” in 1997 and 2001, both of which starred Morgan Freeman as Alex, and 2012’s “Alex Cross,” with Tyler Perry in the leading role.

“James Patterson is among the best at captivating audiences with his undeniably enthralling novels and we are confident that with Ben Watkins’ artistic vision, ‘Cross’ will do the same for our global customers,” said Amazon Studios global television head Vernon Sanders said in a statement. “We are proud to work with James and Ben alongside Paramount Television, Skydance, and the extremely talented Aldis Hodge, who we know will do an exceptional job of bringing Alex Cross to life.”

Hodge most recently played the DC Comics superhero Hawkman in the Dwayne Johnson-led “Black Adam” film. Prior credits include the TNT series “Leverage” and its recent sequel series “Redemption,” “The Invisible Man,” “Hidden Figures,” and “One Night in Miami,” which saw him play football player Jim Brown. Other upcoming projects for the actor include the films “Marmalade” and “Parallel,” the latter of which he stars in and produces with his brother Edwin Hodge.

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