Geeta Vasant Patel, Liz Tigelaar, & More Team Up For “Under the Bridge” Hulu Limited Series

Television

Geeta Vasant Patel, Liz Tigelaar, & More Team Up For “Under the Bridge” Hulu Limited Series

An upcoming Hulu limited series will revisit the tragic murder of Reena Virk, a teenager who was beaten and drowned by bullies in a small Canadian town. According to Deadline, the streamer has greenlit a TV adaptation of Rebecca Godfrey’s novelistic account of the 1997 murder case, “Under the Bridge.” Geeta Vasant Patel (“House of the Dragon”) will direct the eight-episode series of the same name.

The ABC Signature project will be based on true events that unfolded in November 1997, when the body of 14-year-old Virk was discovered floating in the waters near Craigflower Bridge in Saanich, British Columbia. Seven teenage girls and a boy were accused of her murder. 

“Under the Bridge” will be adapted for TV by Quinn Shephard (“Blame”). Liz Tigelaar (“Little Fires Everywhere”) and Samir Mehta (“Tell Me Lies”) are serving as showrunners of the limited series and are among its exec producers, as is Godfrey. 

Winner of the Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Nonfiction and the British Columbia Award for Canadian Nonfiction, Godfrey’s 2005 novel is the culmination of six years of research, including interviews with the accused, and recounts the national tragedy that ignited a moral panic over violence against girls. 

“Godfrey takes us into the bedrooms and classrooms of a powerful hip-hop-obsessed clique and the loner-victim who just wanted to belong, then into the police stations and courtrooms where adults – grieving, devastated – must reckon with the shocking crime,” the book’s official synopsis teases.

Patel’s directorial credits include “Meet the Patels,” for which she and her brother and co-director Ravi Vasant Patel were nominated for an Emmy.