Your salvation is on the way — All the Sinners Bleed, from writer and director Joe Robert Cole, has begun production in Atlanta, Georgia. The upcoming Southern noir series stars Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù as Titus Crown, the first Black sheriff in Charon, a small (and fictional) county in the Bible Belt.
“I’m incredibly excited to be working with Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù on All the Sinners Bleed,” Cole — who is also showrunner and an executive producer on the project — tells Tudum. “I was looking for someone who could capture the duality of Titus Crown’s nobility and charm while also embodying the seductiveness and sense of danger that speaks to the Southern Gothic roots of the book. I think people are really going to fall in love with him as Titus.”
Inspired by S.A. Cosby’s propulsive novel, All the Sinners Bleed follows Titus — who’s haunted by his mother’s death — as he hunts for a serial killer who has been preying on his Black community for years. “I’m a huge lover of serial killer films and television shows,” Cole explains. “I’ve always been fascinated with the lighter and darker halves of who we are as people and which side wins within us. I felt like this story offered an opportunity to explore those ideas through a uniquely complex lens with thrilling human stakes.”
John Douglas Thompson, Nicole Beharie, Daniel Ezra, Andrea Cortés, Murray Bartlett, and more will join Dìrísù on All the Sinners Bleed, which is the first adaptation of one of Cosby’s best-selling novels. “I immediately fell in love with the book,” Cole says, “and knew I wanted to be a part of breathing life into its beautifully unnerving narrative.”
And Cosby can’t wait for audiences to see the drama come to life. “It’s fascinating to me how the writers have been able to make Charon County and Titus feel real in a way that isn’t saccharine or pedantic,” he says. “Joe just gets it. He is an artist who understands the small nuances and the sweeping ideals I tried to articulate in my book. I can’t think of a better person to tell the story of Titus Crown.”
Cosby executive produces All the Sinners Bleed alongside Higher Ground Productions (from Barack and Michelle Obama) and Amblin Television. “I’m incredibly excited as we stand on the precipice of starting this amazing journey,” Cosby says. “I’m also incredibly honored that Netflix, Higher Ground, and Amblin believe in my work and have given me the greatest opportunity a writer can have — to see your world made real.”
As All the Sinners Bleed begins its holy mission, Higher Ground’s Jessie Dicovitsky says, “We’re thrilled to bring S.A. Cosby’s powerful story to life with Joe Robert Cole, who has crafted scripts that honor the depth and authenticity of the source material in extraordinary ways. The journey of Titus Crown explores urgent themes about community, justice, and faith that feel essential right now.”
The Amblin team agrees. “S.A. Cosby’s southern noir, crime drama ‘All the Sinners Bleed’ is a story so gripping and culturally relevant that it demands to be brought to the screen,” says executive producers and Amblin Television’s presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey. “We couldn’t have better partners to help bring this to life with Netflix, Higher Ground, and our visionary showrunner and director Joe Robert Cole.”
See Titus’s story unfold when All the Sinners Bleed premieres on Netflix. And read even more about the upcoming series here.
