The project marks Quibi’s first scripted development out of the UK.
Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi has lined up projects with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro and Antoine Fuqua. Now, it is turning its attention to other parts of the world including the UK.
Deadline understands that the short-form service is developing an adaptation of Harriet Tyce’s psychological thriller novel Blood Orange with Bodyguard and Line of Duty producer World Productions. It’s thought that the ITV-owned indie has set a writer and is adapting the book as a twelve-part series consisting of ten episodes.
The novel, which was published earlier this year by Wildfire and Grand Central Publishing, follows Alison Wood, a criminal barrister taking on her first murder case.
Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems. Alison drinks too much. She’s neglecting her family. And she’s having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. Alison’s client doesn’t deny that she stabbed her husband – she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. But someone knows Alison’s secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she’s done, and who won’t stop until she’s lost everything.
The project marks Quibi’s first scripted development out of the UK.
The Katzenberg and Whitman-led company has recently made two non-scripted orders out of Britain. BBC Studios, which also made a small investment in Quibi last week, is producing wildlife series Fierce Queens for the service, while one of Endemol Shine’s indie has teamed with Idris Elba on a car stunt format.
Fierce Queens, which explores phenomenal female animals, is produced by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, which makes shows such as Planet Earth and Blue Planet, while ESG-backed Workerbee is making Elba vs. Block, which sees the Luther star go head-to-head with renowned rally car driver Ken Block in a series of outrageous car stunts, with Green Door Pictures.
The vast majority of Quibi’s commissions are expected to come out of North America but Katzenberg and Whitman have promised that it will be an international service. World Productions owner ITV is one of the original investors in Quibi in addition to the likes of Europe’s Liberty Global and China’s Alibaba Group as well as the Hollywood studios.
Katzenberg has recently taken his Quibi roadshow north of the border to the Banff World Media Festival in Canada, where it also emerged that Look Mom! Productions, the Blue Ant-backed animation company behind shows such as CBC’s Gary and His Demons is working on an adult animation series called Doom Lands.
– Courtesy: Deadline
