Suspected French Serial Murderer 'The Bikini Killer' Is Focus Of New Netflix Show

A new Netflix series is taking on the real life story of a suspected French serial killer and his female accomplice.

The series, which Netflix is making in conjunction with the BBC, is based on murderer Charles Sobhraj and his sidekick, Marie-Andrée Leclerc, who reportedly killed dozens in the 1970s and '80s.

Sobhraj has been linked to over 20 killings across the world, including in India, Thailand, Nepal, Turkey, and Iran, the BBC reported in 2004. Two of the attacks were on women wearing bikinis, earning him the morbid title of "the Bikini Killer," according to the BBC. He was also called “The Serpent,” due to his knack for changing his identity and escaping several international prisons. In fact, he was once deemed Interpol’s most wanted man.

Actor Tahar Rahim will play Sobhraj in the upcoming series and Jenna Coleman will play Marie-Andrée Leclerc, a French Canadian woman who ended up becomign Sobhraj's companion as he murdered,

“The Serpent intoxicated me into the dark seductive world of Charles Sobhraj. I’m so looking forward to delving into hippie trail depths and bringing to life this unfathomable real life story,” Coleman said, according to Deadline.

The killer was sentenced to 20 years in 2014 for the 1975 murder in Kathmandu of a Canadian tourist and sentenced to life in 2004 for the murder of an American tourist in Nepal. He was never convicted for any of the other murders he was linked to.

While Sobhraj is still alive at age 75, Leclerc died of cancer at age 38 while still claiming her innocence. She was jailed for conspiring to murder an Israeli tourist in India but she was released to seek medical treatment before dying, UPI reported in 1983.

“The Serpent” is slated to be an eight-part limited series. A release date has not been announced.