USA Orders ‘The Sinner’ Crime Drama Pilot

USA has greenlit a pilot for a proposed crime-themed drama called “The Sinner” featuring and produced by former “7th Heaven” star Jessica Biel. Adapted by Derek Simonds (“The Astronauts Wives Club”) from Petra Hammesfahr’s book of the same name, the project chronicles the aftermath when a young mother, overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage, commits a startling and very public act of violence – and to her horror has no idea why. The event launches an “inverted and utterly surprising crime thriller” whose driving force is not the who or the what, but the why.

The scoop: As “The Sinner” unfolds, an investigator finds himself obsessed with uncovering the mother’s buried motive, and together they “travel a harrowing journey into the depths of her psyche and the violent secrets hidden in her past.”

Antonio Campos (“Simon Killer”) will direct the pilot. Biel is executive producing with her producing partner Michelle Purple through their company Iron Ocean Films, alongside Simonds and Campos.