New Netflix film will explore Cleveland's unsolved Torso Murders

Driving the news: Last week, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Netflix had won a seven-figure bidding war for the movie rights to "Torso," the late-1990s graphic novel about the murders written by Clevelanders Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko.

• "Weapons" director Zach Cregger is among those on board to produce the film, which is in the early stages of development.

Flashback: The Torso Murders were characterized by the dismemberment and decapitation of victims, most of whose remains were discovered in Cleveland's impoverished Kingsbury Run area.

• A dozen victims were officially attributed to the "Torso Murderer" with only two positively identified.

Famed lawman Eliot Ness, then Cleveland's safety director, led the investigation, which remains unsolved.

• In 2024, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office teamed with the DNA Doe Project to begin exhuming some victims in hopes of identifying them.

State of play: David Fincher ("Seven," "Zodiac") signed on to direct a film based on the Torso Murders with Paramount Pictures in 2006 that was never made.

• Paramount tried and failed again in 2017 with the "Bourne" franchise's Paul Greengrass.

Between the lines: More recently, the script for "Untouchable," a separate project based on the murders written by Julian Silver and Reiss Clauson-Wolf, made the 2025 Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays.

What they're saying: "Thank you for such a warm reception to this awesome news," Bendis wrote on Facebook.

• "Especially those with us since the beginning of this crazy journey!"