Amazon Picks Up Remake Of ‘Utopia’ From ‘Gone Girl’ Writer Gillian Flynn
Amazon Studios has greenlit a straight-to-series order for ‘Utopia‘ based on the British series of the same name written by Dennis Kelly.
The 9-episode series comes from award-winning Gillian Flynn, the best-selling author and screenwriter of Golden Globe-nominated ‘Gone Girl’ and HBO’s highly anticipated ‘Sharp Objects’. Flynn has also inked an overall deal with Amazon Studios across television, marking ‘Utopia’ as the first project. Utopia will be available exclusively on Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories.
A remake of the show has been floating around as a possibility for a while. A version was originally set at HBO back in 2014 with Flynn and ‘Gone Girl’ director David Fincher set to produce. After that deal fell through and Fincher left the project, the show was left in limbo but has now reemerged at Amazon.
“Utopia is pure creative catnip to me,” comments Flynn. “Dennis Kelly’s show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place. Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling—it’s a series that’s urgent and current and a little holy-crap!, but a hell of a lot of a fun.”
The story follows a group of young adults, who meet online but are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organisation after they come into possession of a near-mythical, cult, underground graphic novel. They discover the conspiracy theories in the comic’s pages may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world.
“We are huge fans of Gillian Flynn’s electrifying work,” said Nick Hall, Head of Alternative Series for Amazon Studios. “She crafts stories that hold her audience in a constant state of suspense and subverts the expectations behind her characters. She will deliver Prime Video members a series they won’t forget, and Utopia’s relevance is sure to connect with viewers around the globe.”
Flynn is the creator, executive producer and showrunner of Utopia, and executive producers include Jessica Rhoades (who Flynn collaborated with on Sharp Objects), Sharon Hall, Karen Wilson, Dennis Kelly and Diederick Santer. Sharon Levy, President, Unscripted & Scripted Television, Endemol Shine North America, will oversee production for Endemol Shine. The series is a co-production between Endemol Shine North America, Kudos, an Endemol Shine Group UK production studio, and Amazon Studios.
Once again, this is a show which fits well into Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos’ big push to find the next big, epic drama like ‘Game Of Thrones’. They already have a ‘The Lord of the Rings’ series in development, along with a ‘Conan the Barbarian’ series, a show based on Iain M. Banks ‘Culture’ novels, and have recently put into development a series based on William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’ from ‘Westworld’ creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
