Dark
Network: Netflix
Writer(s): Jantje Friese
Logline: A mysterious saga following four families living in a small German town. Their idyllic life is torn apart when two children mysteriously disappear and the families’ dark secrets begin to come to the surface.
SSN Insight: Project is the first German production for Netflix. Netflix has given a series order of ten episodes as of February 24. Production is set to start this year with a worldwide series debut in 2017. Dark will be directed by Baran bo Odar, who directed the German box office hit Who Am I – No System Is Safe.
Five Year
Network: Viki (online)
Production Company(s): Skybound Entertainment
Executive Producer(s): Robert Kirkman
Logline: A pre-apocalyptic series, about a family living under the threat of a deadly meteor headed toward Earth.
SSN Insight: The series will debut its first 16-episode season on Korean broadcast TV and worldwide on Viki. Producers plan to shoot five seasons over five years. Filming will begin later this year. Viki is a global TV site to discover, watch and subtitle global primetime shows and movies in more than 200 languages. Viki is a unit of Japanese Internet services company Rakuten.
Godless
Network: Netflix
Executive Producer(s): Scott Frank, Steven Soderbergh, Casey Silver
Writer(s): Scott Frank.
Logline: Storyline under wraps. A Western set in an 1800s New Mexico mining town.
SSN Insight: The series will be written, directed and executive produced by Frank. Frank earned an Oscar nomination for his feature adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel into the 1998 movie Out of Sight, which was directed by Soderbergh. The project is currently casting and will shoot in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hey Arnold! (Animated TV Movie)
Network: Nickelodeon
Logline: Centers on Arnold, an 8-year-old city kid and his friends who endure the usual trials of childhood — playground bullies, secret crushes, snow days, school plays — while learning to cope with the obstacles that come with growing up in a tough urban environment.
Details: Based on the animated TV series that ran from 1996 to 2000 on Nickelodeon. Hey Arnold! The Movie, a feature length animated film, was released theatrically in 2002.
SSN Insight: Nickelodeon credits the recent emphasis on reviving past shows from their interns who thought the programs would work online. Executives instead aired a block of the shows on Teen Nick at night. In an interview with Variety, Cyma Zarghami, President of Viacom’s Kids and Family Group said social media played a part in the resurgence, “Interest in the Nick library was becoming louder and louder and louder.”
Legends of the Hidden Temple (TV Movie)
Network: Nickelodeon
Logline: Three siblings must conquer a series of obstacles to remain alive.
Details: Based on the game show that ran from 1993-1996 on Nickelodeon.
SSN Insight: Slated to premiere in late 2016. Isabela Moner will star. She previously appeared on Nick’s 100 Things to Do Before High School. The movie will feature callbacks to the game show including Olmec, a talking head who knows the secrets behind the temple; the Steps of Knowledge, the entrance to the temple and launching pad for the mission; and cameos from a green monkey, red jaguar and silver snakes, among others.
Mating
Network: Showtime Networks
Studio: Universal Television
Production Company(s): True Jack Productions
Executive Producer(s): Stu Zicherman, Jason Katims, Michelle Lee
Writer(s): Stu Zicherman
Logline: Explores modern dating and relationships, with each season chronicling a different protagonist’s journey. The first season-long arc will center on a recently divorced guy who tries to evolve and connect one date at a time.
SSN Insight: Showtime has ordered the pilot. The project was originally set up at Showtime in the summer of 2014. The show is a co-production between Universal TV and Showtime.
Minors
Production Company(s): MACRO
Executive Producer(s): Ryan Coogler, Destin Daniel Cretton, Chinaka Hodge, Charles D. King, Kim Roth
Writer(s): Chinaka Hodge
Logline: The series explores juvenile facilities, the kids that grow up in the system and how the facilities shape the kids over a one year time period.
Details: Based on Destin Daniel Cretton’s experience working in residential foster care, Ryan Coogler’s East Bay area upbringing and time working in a juvenile detention facility, and Chinaka Hodge’s experience teaching underserved youth in Bay Area continuation schools and her 15 years of working with local youth.
SSN Insight: The new drama will be shopped to networks and other TV vehicles. King’s MACRO production company was launched to produce film, TV and digital projects for African-American, Latino and multicultural audiences.
Ozark
Network: Netflix
Production Company(s): Media Rights Capital, Aggregate Films
Executive Producer(s): Jason Bateman, Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams, Chris Mundy
Writer(s): Bill Dubuque
Logline: Set at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, the story takes place in the dark and dangerous world of drug money laundering.
Details: Planned as a straight-to-series project. (9/25/2015)
SSN Insight: Netflix has greenlit the series. Bateman will star and direct the series along with his role as executive producer. Dubuque previously sold his pitch The Real McCoy to Universal with Chris Prat to star and also penned the upcoming The Accountant starring Ben Affleck for Warner Bros.
The Black 22s
Network: National Geographic Channel
Executive Producer(s): Paul Guyot, David Oyelowo, John Rogers, Jennifer Court, Bharat Nalluri
Writer(s): Paul Guyot
Logline: Based the true story of the brilliant African-American detective and one of the first all-black police squad in America in St. Louis, Missouri. Battling the gangland killers of Prohibition and set up to fail by their own bosses, they fought for justice during one of the most racially charged times in history, in a city that to this day is a flashpoint for racism and police brutality.
SSN Insight: Paul Guyot (TNT’s The Librarians) will also serve as showrunner. Bharat Nalluri (Life on Mars) is also attached to direct. NatGeo bought the script with a significant penalty attached and it marks one of the first major moves in the scripted space by the channel.
The Mist
Network: Spike TV
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Executive Producer(s): Christian Torpe
Writer(s): Christian Torpe
Logline: A seemingly innocuous mist seeps into a small town but contains limitless havoc. From psychological terrors to otherworldly creatures, the mist causes the town residents’ darkest demons to appear forcing them to battle the supernatural event and, more importantly, each other.
Details: Based on the novella, “The Mist,” written by Stephen King and first published as part of the horror anthology, “Dark Forces” by Viking Press in 1980. The novella was also adapted into the film, “The Mist,” (2007), directed by Frank Darabont and starring Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden.
SSN Insight: Spike gave a pilot order on February 25. Christian Torpe created the hit Danish drama Rita, now completing its fourth season.
The Von Bulow Affair
Studio: Universal Cable Productions
Writer(s): Ilene Rosenzweig
Logline: Follows the greatest society trial of the 20th century when Claus Von Bulow is arrested for the murder of his wife, millionaire socialite Sunny Von Bulow. After she was found unconscious on her bathroom floor on Dec. 21, 1980, Sunny remained in a coma for 27 years. Claus went on trial for attempted murder in 1982, initiating a legal circus that would last for years.
Details: Based on the true-crime book The Von Bulow Affair by author-playwright William Wright published in 1983.
SSN Insight: Ilene Rosenzweig previously wrote Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. UCP will shop the project to broadcast and cable networks.
Untitled Rasputin Drama Project
Production Company(s): Media Rights Capital, Parts and Labor
Executive Producer(s): Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen
Writer(s): Robert Eggers
Logline: The story follows Russian mystic Rasputin’s origins in Siberia, his rise to power as an adviser to the Imperial family, and his eventual bloody death, after multiple unsuccessful attempts on his life, in St. Petersburg.
Details: Based on the true story of Rasputin, an adviser to the Russian royal family in the early 20th century.
SSN Insight: A network has not been set. Writer-director Robert Eggers will write and direct six to eight episodes. Eggers previously helmed The Witch. Eggers, Van Hoy and Knudsen take this on as they separately work on a remake of Nosferatu at Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8.