Netflix denies reports of Midnight in Peking murder mystery show (updated)

The book's author was quoted by Chinese news saying Rogue One star Jiang Wen would play the lead

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After Paul French published Midnight in Peking, he also wrote City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai.

Published: 8:35pm, 6 May 2019Updated: 9:03am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Update: Netflix has denied the report from The Paper, saying they have not been in talks to produce Midnight in Peking.

"This is the first we have heard of the project," a company spokesperson said. "Netflix has not been in discussions with Paul French nor Jiang Wen to commission the making of Midnight in Peking."

The only confirmed Chinese-language originals Netflix is producing this year are Nowhere Man (previously titled Bardo), Triad Princess and Ghost Bride.

Original story: On the morning of January 8, 1937, police in Beijing found the mutilated body of a 19-year-old British woman, the privileged daughter of a former British consul.

To this day, the ghastly murder of Pamela Werner remains an unsolved crime. But British writer Paul French turned it into a best-selling book titled Midnight in Peking in 2011, for which French won an Edgar Award. The story is now being turned into a Netflix show, French said in a recent interview with The Paper, a state-owned media outlet in Shanghai.

French didn’t reveal any specifics regarding timeframe for release or the show's length, but he did say the show will star popular Chinese actor Jiang Wen, perhaps best known to Western audiences as Baze Malbus in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He will play the show’s lead detective.

Midnight in Peking will be the first Netflix original series set in mainland China. The company announced its first Chinese language original back in 2017. The show, titled Bardo, is an eight-episode jailbreak thriller set in Taiwan.