EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Apple has landed the hot TV package See with a straight-to-series order. An epic, world-building drama set in the future, the project is written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2). It comes from the recently launched scripted drama venture between Peter Chernin’s Chernin Entertainment and Endeavor Content.
The size of the order is still TBD but likely will consist of eight episodes. Knight and Lawrence executive produce with Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kristen Campo.
This marks the fourth scripted series order for Apple’s recently formed worldwide video programming division under Jamie Erlicht & Zack Van Amburg. See joins a morning-show drama, executive produced by and starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon; Amazing Stories, a reimagining of the anthology from Steven Spielberg and Bryan Fuller; and a Ronald D. Moore space drama. Additionally, the division just ordered its first docuseries, Home.
British screenwriter Knight was nominated for an Oscar for writing Dirty Pretty Things. He also wrote Eastern Promises and co-created the limited series Taboo. Knight, who wrote and directed the upcoming feature Serenity, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, is repped by CAA, United Agents and Nelson Davis.
Lawrence most recently helmed the upcoming spy thriller Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence, whom he also directed in three Hunger Games movies. He is repped by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson Teller.
Chernin Entertainment and Endeavor Content — the unit that combined WME and IMG’s scripted television and film financing and sales groups — launched their venture two months ago with a goal to finance, develop and create premium scripted drama series with international appeal for all distribution platforms. They have another project at Apple, Are You Sleeping, a thriller drama starring Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, which hails from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. It is in development for a straight-to-series consideration.
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