It has just been announced that Universal Pictures has bought the rights to the Santangelo book series, and will develop feature films based on the character Lucky Santangelo.

The book series, written by Jackie Collins, is comprised of nine novels with one spin-off. The story follows the daughter of Italian-American gangster, Gino Santangelo, the patriarch of a crime family that originated in the 1920s.

Collins wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list. Her books have been translated into 40 languages. Eight of her novels have been adapted for the screen, either as films or television miniseries.  Two of the books from the Santangelo series has already been made into a television miniseries (whose scripts were adapted by Collins herself).

Although Collins passed away in 2015, her daughters had this to say about the recent development:

“We are thrilled to be bringing our mother’s most iconic and dynamic character to the big screen. With [Monumental Pictures] track record of female driven stories, we consider them to be the perfect producers, and now to be the perfect time for a kick ass female heroine to take center stage in Hollywood.”

The project is expected to be a trilogy. There has not been a release date set yet.