As immigration takes the center stage in today’s politics, a UH Mānoa geography professor’s forthcoming book is making its way toward the small screen.

Reece Jones has not finished writing “Smuggler,” the true story of Robert Boulé, a U.S. and Canada bed-and-breakfast owner who helped asylum seekers cross while secretly working as a government informant. Nevertheless, the book has already caught the attention of HBO, which has optioned it for a potential TV series.

Jones hadn’t originally planned to write about Boulé. While researching the U.S. Border Patrol’s authority for his 2022 book, “Nobody is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States,” he came across Egbert v. Boule, a Supreme Court case that granted the Border Patrol even more authority than before. The ruling essentially stated that individuals cannot sue a Border Patrol agent for actions taken during their normal course of duties.

At first, Jones focused on the legal impact, until he became intrigued by the man at its center.

“I started to look more and more into it, I became fascinated with the person who was assaulted by a border patrol agent in that case, which is a guy named Robert Boulé, and he’s this crazy character,” Jones said.
For over 15 years, Boulé helped more than 1,000 asylum seekers cross into Canada while also working as a government informant, actions that led to legal battles and arrests.
Jones’ creative journey has now taken an unexpected turn, stepping foot into the world of screenwriting and television. The book is scheduled for release in fall of 2026, but the real question is whether it will make its way to the screen.
While screenwriting isn’t something Jones ever envisioned himself doing, and isn’t exactly his area of expertise, he finds himself captivated by this process of his book.
“It has been fun learning about the world of screenwriting, because it was something I didn’t have any experience with, and so it was a chance to understand how something gets changed from a book into a series for TV and seeing how that whole process works,” Jones said.
The producers who optioned the book have already brought a screenwriter on board, and she’s hard at work crafting the script.
So, what happens next? Once the script is ready, it’ll go back to HBO, and that’s when the big decision happens: will HBO decide to purchase the series and bring it to life on screen? The option is a critical step in the process, but it’s also a waiting game, so no guarantees just yet.
While not everything that gets optioned makes it to the screen, the fact that “Smuggler” has the chance to is a great experience for Jones.

“We’re still at the start of it, so there’s no guarantee it will make it to the screen, but the chance that it could is pretty exciting,” said Jones.

For Jones, “Smuggler” offers a chance to reshape the narrative around Boulé since his public image has been clouded by legal and media negativity after his arrests and Supreme Court hearings.

“The Supreme Court talks about him as if he was doing a lot of bad things so the public version of him that exists on the internet is a negative one,” Jones said. “Boulé kind of wants to set the record straight.”