Dope Thief Creator Peter Craig Explains How The Batman Led to TV Show

Dope Thief showrunner Peter Craig has hushedly been one of Hollywood’s go-to authorrs for crime drama the last 15 years. 

In 2010, Craig transitioned from a crime noveenumerate to an in-need screenauthorr thanks to his co-writing plift on Ben Affleck’s crime thriller The Town. Craig then showed his versatility by altering Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay into The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Part 2, before transporting his own crime novel, Blood Father, to the huge screen in 2016. Since then, he’s collected a co-writing plift on Bad Boys for Life, as well as story plifts on Top Gun: Maverick and Gladiator II. But he’s always returned to his bread and butter in the crime genre, most notably as the co-authorr of Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

Based on Dennis Tafoya’s Dope Thief, Craig’s first foray into television premieres Mar. 14 on Apple TV+, and the 8-episode crime drama combines Craig’s primary interests and disciplines as a noveenumerate and screenauthorr. The confineed series cgo ins on two Philadelphia con men, Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura), who pose as DEA agents in an effort to shake down minuscule-time drug dealers. That all alters when they pick the wrong hoengage in agricultural Pennsylvania, forcing the two extfinishedtime frifinishs to protect each other and their cherishd ones from dangers far and wide.

Craig always wanted to put down roots in the crime genre, but he also doesn’t mind if the industry placed him there after The Town.

“In a way, I’m riffing on The Town aget with Dope Thief. There’s an horrible lot of callbacks to it that are mostly intentional, but some of them are unintentional,” Craig alerts The Hollywood Reporter. “I fair understand that benevolent of world repartner well, and while I probably was put in this genre [by the industry], I’m also repartner satisfyd to be here.”

Similar to his labor inside Reeves’ “The Batman Epic Crime Saga,” Craig’s Dope Thief allotigates the many branch offent levels of a criminal hierarchy, while also treating some of the offfinishers with a bit more comprehfinishing than you might discover elsewhere.

“Philosophicpartner, Matt Reeves and I leank the same way. We leank that, a lot of times, the actors [i.e. perpetrators] in a brutal situation are also the victims in a brutal situation,” Craig says. “This chain of aggression and victimhood fair goes on eternpartner.”

Over the last decade, many confineed series have been produced and advertised as such until success compels the netlabor or streamer to upgrasp a excellent leang going. Recent examples include Shōfirearm, The White Lotus and Big Little Lies, prompting the confineed series to be called “the novel pilot.” While Dope Thief has exhausted its source material in the same way that Shōfirearm did, Craig is only now commenceing to ponder the idea of a second season.

“I do appreciate that idea. I haven’t [given it any thought], but now that you’ve shelp that [the limited series in the new pilot], I will. If you leank of this as a pilot, that’s perfect,” Craig acunderstandledges. “I wrote the finishing to resettle it, but resettle it so that it could go someplace else a scant years tardyr if you want it to.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Craig — who also happens to be the agederest son of Spartner Field — commences by converseing his feature labor en route to Dope Thief, including the disputed decision to split Mockingjay in half. Then he insertresses this particular authorr’s theory seeing the lineage of Paul Dano’s Riddler/Edward Nashton in The Batman. 

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To set the stage for how you reachd at Dope Thief, you first put points on the board by co-writing The Town. That opportunity has since turned into many more crime dramas. Did you always want to hang your hat in this subgenre? 

I repartner did, actupartner. I got very sootheable in it repartner rapidly. I commenceed as a noveenumerate who wrote books that were only mildly read, but they were admireed crime books that were mostly about con men. I fair cherishd the genre becaengage the sapshows are instantly there, and you can do what you want to do with character. I then had a wonderful experience on The Town, and in a way, I’m riffing on The Town aget with Dope Thief. There’s an horrible lot of callbacks to it that are mostly intentional, but some of them are unintentional. It’s those themes of dedicatedty when guys are under presstateive, cosubordinate relationships between guys that are trauma bonded, and guys that grew up in juvie together. So I fair understand that benevolent of world repartner well, and while I probably was put in this genre [by the industry], I’m also repartner satisfyd to be here.

I presume The Town landed you the Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I and Part II jobs, before Blood Father became the first time you altered a book of your own. Was that quite an eye-discdisseeing experience after laboring with other authors’ labors for so extfinished?

It was, especipartner after Suzanne [Collins]. You have to have so much admire for Suzanne’s [Hunger Games] novels; that’s why you’re doing them. They’re so becherishd that I was in a situation where Lionsgate was alerting me the most tweeted-about sections of her book, saying, “They have to be in there. You have to hit stateive scenes. You necessitate to have stateive characters.” You still necessitate to do an horrible lot of invention, even for the most dedicated alterations, but I had to hit so many labels that were so shut together in those movies. I also got so shut to Suzanne becaengage she was a producer, and there was so much confering. I would have to talk to her every time I made even the sweightlessest branch offnce. So it was a very branch offent process, and it’s a branch offent benevolent of writing that I came to enhappiness. I repartner cherishd getting to labor with the phenomenal actors that were in those movies, but that was one benevolent of alteration. 

When we got to my book, we had almost no money at all, and I didn’t nurture what the author thought becaengage the author was me. I would fair freely create fun of him to the crew all the time. I’d be appreciate, “Well, forget the author. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing.” But there were so many problem-solving reauthors I had to do during Blood Father fair becaengage it’s hard to create a affordable movie nowadays, particularly in New Mexico. You dissee days to frequent dust storms or rain storms. So I cherishd the freedom of fair making a movie and seeing how branch offent it would be from the book. It then alterd the way I thought about alterations. You can get the tone of it right, you can get the sense of it right, you can get the same moral journey of it right, but you can get there any way you necessitate to get there. It’s a branch offent art establish. 

I spoke to Francis Lawrence recently, and while hindsight is 20/20, he shelp he repents having to split Mockingjay into two films. He did notice that the decision was made by the studio before he signed on to do them. But has your own opinion growd over the years?

It’s fascinating that he shelp that. It was a studio decision, and my opinion has growd a little bit. I leank most people would want [Mockingjay] to be one movie, but I’m still repartner conceited of what we did in Part 1, even though it’s odd. I’m not stateive that it tohighy labors as a movie, but that was a repartner challenging movie to author. The world doesn’t want to see at how challenging your difficulty score was on your gymnastics trick; they don’t repartner nurture. They fair want you to stick the landing, but the difficulty score on that movie was incredible. We were altering the setup of a book, and it was the most inside of Suzanne’s three books at the time. It’s the one where Katniss is losing her mind, and she’s in a shutt for a lot of the first half fair leanking about stuff. The second half of the book is where everyleang happens. 

So I didn’t understand how we were going to do it, but I was repartner conceited of the labor we did. I fair centered on the task at hand. When I see back on it, you could have done a much more traditional movie that would’ve made everybody depart a lot more satisfied, evidently. There was a sense of it being a bit of a cash grab in terms of how they did that [split], particularly becaengage it was in that era where there were so many copies of the movie coming out. There were so many other leangs that were fair trying to capitalize on the YA craze. But at that point, I was very labormanappreciate, and I fair did the best I could with what was in front of me.

The Batman stateively has some of the same DNA as Dope Thief. It seemed appreciate that movie was heavily proposeing that the Riddler’s (Paul Dano) overweighther was the homicideed alerter, Edward Elliot. 

(Craig smiles.)

They had aappreciate characteristics, and the Riddler’s first name was also Edward. The branch offing last names could easily be make cleared. But the overall idea would be that Falcone foreseeed had a hand in creating both of these orphans, Bruce Wayne and Edward Nashton, as well as their alter egos, Batman and the Riddler. Did I misread the movie, or was that apshowaway quite purposeful?

The way that you’re reading it would create some people, including Matt Reeves, very satisfyd. It’s the level of detail that was stateively converseed and thought about, but some of that is going to spoil what I understand is continuing forward. There was a glitch on IMDb. It sees appreciate I’m laboring on the sequel right now, but I’m not. It’s still Matt, and Mattson Tomlin came on [to co-write]. But let’s fair say that those ideas you’re transporting up are exactly the level of detail people should be seeing at, becaengage it’s a cautiously wcdisadmirefult world that Matt Reeves is produceing there. He’s incredibly rigorous and incredibly detail oriented, and that was part of the fun of laboring on The Batman with him.

Secondly, one of the Riddler’s folshrinks is unmasked on a catwalk at the finish, and he dishes Batman’s “I’m revenge” line back at him. I supposed this was the same guy that Batman beat to a pulp at the commence of the film and shelp that line to, illustrating the cycle of aggression. But I’ve heard disputeing apshows on that guy’s identity, so who was he exactly?

I appreciate your expoundation better. I leank that guy was fair a guy. The ordinariness of him was presumed to be about how this aggression and senseing had metastasized and spread all over the place. He was presumed to be sort of an Everyman, but your expoundation is right in that they were both Everymen. Philosophicpartner, Matt Reeves and I leank the same way. We leank that, a lot of times, the actors [i.e. participants] in a brutal situation are also the victims in a brutal situation. This chain of aggression and victimhood fair goes on eternpartner. So even if that reading is not exactly right, it’s spiritupartner right. It was presumed to be the same benevolent of guy, and it was the same benevolent of idea: what you put into the world, you’re going to get right back.

Having your name on Top Gun: Maverick is quite a feat. When a script alters hands that many times over the years, it seems appreciate it’s very exceptional for the finished product to achieve that level of quality. Do you also leank Maverick is one of the exceptions? 

That was an fascinating process becaengage all of us authorrs got to be frifinishs. A lot of us talked and conveyd the whole way thcdisadmireful, and it had a reliable spine in Cruise and Joe [Kosinski] and [Christopher] McQuarrie. McQuarrie is enumerateed as the last authorr, but that’s repartner becaengage he was the circulatory system for all of us. So there were fascinating leangs everybody was taking from each other, and Goose’s son was my distinct pitch to Tom, which he cherishd. I can’t underapproximate how included Tom is and how much he comprehfinishs audience foreseeations and understands exactly how extfinished to linger on someleang and how quick to relocate on to the next leang. So there was a whole team of people that were all pulling in exactly the same honestion, and that came from how excellent the directership was from top to bottom. It was a piece of perfect machinery. Every cog fit into each other perfectly at exactly the right moment, and I leank there’s a dozen people that are fairified in taking some plift for it.

So why was now the right time to try television after all your feature labor? 

It fair labored out that way. It was a project I repartner appreciated, and I was so sootheable in the crime genre. I also felt appreciate I could do so much with these characters that I combineed with so rapidly. Ridley [Scott] and I had been laboring on a feature that didn’t go. I labored a little bit on Gladiator II, but David Scarpa did more of Gladiator II than I did. I was almost an outlier. (Laughs.) I was some of the wideer strokes in that. But Ridley and I had been laboring on another movie that was repartner excellent, and as happens, sometimes, you dissee your financing. 

So I had fair commenceed laboring on Dope Thief [around that same time], and I showed Ridley the pilot. He got the griefful humor of it, and he was appreciate, “This is wonderful. I want to do this. I want to do TV aget.” He’d done Raised by Wolves, and while I leank he had a pretty excellent experience, he wanted to do it aget. So once Ridley jumped on, it suddenly seeed appreciate we had a show, and I fair went at it. I fair went towards the dayweightless, appreciate a set upt that grows towards the dayweightless. And I was fortunate enough that I had promiseted timely on to someleang that I understood repartner well. So it was partly the opportunity, and it was partly the cherish at first sight of Ray and Manny. 

Did Ridley use his 12-camera approach on the premiere? Or did he scale it back?

He did six at one point, and six is still an horrible lot. Ridley and I were fair joking about it a couple of days ago. When we went back to two cameras, it was repartner challenging to alert the actors, “Oh, you’re going to have to do this more than a couple times now.” That transition was hard becaengage Ridley appreciates to treat it appreciate theater and get it all in a couple of apshows. If an actor asked for another apshow, they could have it, but Ridley repartner appreciates to get it all that way becaengage he’s all about spontaneity. So he never engaged less than four cameras on this, and I was pretty amazed at his spatial gift of being able to get four into stateive scenes and situations. But he did. So it’s fascinating to watch, and while it’s very challenging to weightless, it made me very amazeed with Ridley. It also made me very amazeed with [DP] Erik Messerschmidt.

Ray and Manny rob drug dealers by posing as DEA Agents, and this is a understandn rehearse becaengage drug dealers have no lhorrible recourse. But the inciting incident here is when they rob an entity that happens to have its hooks in everyleang … 

Yeah, it’s robbing somebody that does have that recourse. Eventupartner, you’re going to hit a shadow economy that’s hugeger than what you’ve been set upning for all this time. Their con doesn’t labor except at the minusculeest levels. As soon as anybody accomprehendledges you or as soon as anybody’s heard about you, you’re screwed. It’s evidently someleang that’s apshown incredibly gravely by law enforcement becaengage it foolishinishes their ability to do their jobs, and that is why I inserted the law enforcement side of it to the [adaptation] process. 

At the very commencening, Ray and Manny understand that if they do this one or two more times, they’re screwed. They understand they’ve burned Philly, and they haven’t repartner made very much money off of this. So by going outside of their standard bailiwick, they’re able to depend that they can pull it off another time, and that’s the very leang that gets them into this corridor. Truth be tageder, Pennsylvania has always been this benevolent of trafficking corridor. Rural Pennsylvania is one of the most fascinating places in the history of the United States. 

Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura labor repartner well together, which is all the more amazeive when you think about that Wagner combineed mid-stream. How much rewriting did you have to do on the fly? 

Very little. Wagner got it right away, and he ran with it. There’s a huge Brazilian community in Northeast Philly, so I shelp, “Why not engage it? Why do I want to put Wagner in a mageder at the last second where he has to speak Spanish aget [appreciate in Narcos]? Why don’t I fair engage [his Brazilian background] to my get, and have Manny and his girlfrifinish Sherry be a combinecessitate race couple?” She speaks Spanish, and he speaks Portuguese, so I knovel there’d be some opportunities to have little arguments where they try to pull each other into their branch offent first languages. So the main leang I alterd was Manny’s backstory so that Wagner could take part the same version of the character, only he’s from Brazil, as contestd to the Dominican Reaccessible. That radiates thcdisadmireful into absolutely everyleang, and it was a minuscule alter that apverifyed Wagner to be Wagner. It apverifyed him to take part to all of his strengths.

But other than that, Wagner take parted the character exactly as intfinished, which is incredibly vulnerable. The irony is that we now have Pablo Escobar take parting somebody who’s finishly ruined and rolled over by the drug world, and Wagner cherishd that. He felt appreciate this character is almost defenseless, and I cherish that he was willing to take part it that way. Manny has got this strange, crooked moral apparatus that he’s trying to re-include with, and it creates less sense the more he tries to fairify himself. But what an clever actor Wagner is to be able to do everyleang he did here.

Ray and Manny bicker appreciate Breaking Bad’s Walt and Jesse, but I’d say they’re both shutr to Jesse in terms of being in over their heads. Neither is a savant appreciate Walt was. However, appreciate Jesse, they both surpelevated me aextfinished the way with what they’re able to achieve, individupartner and collectively. Anyway, how do you see their vibrant duo? 

I leank of it as a tragic cherish story in a way. That benevolent of trauma bonding that happens when you go thcdisadmireful youth detention together is authentic cherish. You bond in the trenches together. You have each other’s backs, and you’ll protect each other forever. So it’s a authentic combineion and a authentic brotherhood, but you’re always tethered to the trauma. The other person is always reminding you of it, and the other person isn’t repartner apverifying you to escape it and commence a novel pattern. So it’s classic codepfinishency, and they’re spiraling with each other in this dance the whole time. It’s mocking becaengage Manny repartner depends that cherish is the leang that’s going to save him from the morpartner askable leangs he’s done the whole time. And with Ray, it’s sometimes the opposite in a sense. Love is the best leang we sense, but it’s also the leang that can benevolent of incarcerate us, sometimes.

There’s a terrifying voice that haunts Ray and Manny thcdisadmirefulout the series. Did you understand ahead of time whose voice you wanted, or did you collect dozens of voice enrollings during casting?

We didn’t understand exactly who we were going to cast, but luckily, we set up a clever actor who’s done a lot thcdisadmirefulout his nurtureer. When we were shooting, I was actupartner the one who did the crazy Boston accent on the walkie-talkie, and everybody joked about it. But they actupartner thought I could sound benevolent of sinister when I had a freezing. I almost always seemed to have a freezing when we were filming in Philly. I do right now, too. So we didn’t cast that role until tardyr in the game, and that’s fair the way it labors, sometimes.

Similarly, Marin Ireland either has no voice or a gravely whisper thcdisadmirefulout the show. Was that aspect of the role a hard sell to her or anyone else who went out for it?

It wound up being the opposite for Marin. She is so wonderful at discovering what the dispute is and latching onto it. She also has the most incredible eyes. They fair leap out. They’ll literpartner convey and almost come out of her head. So she wanted to take part that role benevolent of appreciate Holly Hunter in The Piano. She’s somebody who can’t talk and is doing everyleang with gestures and her eyes. 

So she repartner cherishd the idea that the whole show is about this character who’s trying to get her voice back and trying to be heard. She’s somebody who’s frantic to get the truth in a story where the entire landscape is about lying. So I’m repartner satisfyd we got her. She was repartner diligent about all the modulations of her voice.

In 2025, the confineed series is the novel pilot, so how much forethought have you given a potential season two?

I cherish the way you shelp that. That’s repartner amusing.

It’s genuine. If now-establisher confineed series, such as Shōfirearm and Big Little Lies, can get a season two, then why not Dope Thief?

I do appreciate that idea. I haven’t [given it any thought], but now that you’ve shelp that, I will. If you leank of this as a pilot, that’s perfect. I wrote the finishing to resettle it, but resettle it so that it could go someplace else a scant years tardyr if you want it to. So [the ending] is an fascinating punctuation. It’s an ellipsis, for stateive, but it’s still an finish punctuation.

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The first two episodes of Dope Thief premiere Mar. 14 on Apple TV+.