Multiple outlets are bidding on a buzzy limited series adaptation of the best-selling novel “The Plot” with Mahershala Ali attached to star for Endeavor Content.
“How to Get Away With Murder” writer Abby Ajayi is on board to pen the series based on the psychological thriller by “The Undoing” author Jean Hanff Korelitz about a struggling author and writing instructor who steals a genius plot idea for a novel from one of his students. The book is a smash hit, his career soars but he’s also drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse with a tormentor who knows he lifted the story idea.
Endeavor Content assembled the eight-episode project and shopped it in recent days to at least a half-dozen outlets, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO/HBO Max and Amazon. It’s known to have been enthusiastically received and drawn multiple offers. Endeavor Content declined to comment.
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Layne Eskridge, the former Netflix and Apple TV executive who inked a production deal with Endeavor Content in January, is on board to serve as an executive producer. Kristen Campo, former Chernin Entertainment executive who is now working under a deal at Endeavor Content, is also an executive producer, as is Ali.
Ali is a two-time Oscar winner, for 2017’s “Moonlight” and 2019’s “Green Book.” For TV, he starred in the third season of HBO’s “True Detective” in 2019 and was a regular on Netflix’s “Luke Cage” and “House of Cards.” He was featured in the 2020 HBO documentary special “Between the World and Me,” and he was a semi-regular last year on the Hulu comedy “Ramy.”
In addition to shopping “The Plot,” Endeavor Content is in the midst of a sale process itself. Parent company Endeavor has been considering bids submitted last week for 80% of the company.
Endeavor is facing a year-end deadline to sell off that stake in its production arm under the terms of the settlement agreement it reached in January with the Writers Guild of America. The WGA’s new franchise terms for talent agents representing guild members bar agents or agencies from having more than a 20% stake in a production-distribution entity. The Endeavor Content auction is said to have drawn both financial and strategic suitors and is expected to be concluded this month.
SOURCE : Variety
