Amazon Studios Greenlights Utopia, Signs Gillian Flynn to Overall Deal
Amazon Studios has greenlit a straight-to-series order for Utopia, a
nine-episode series 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.
Utopia is based on the British series of the same name written by
Dennis Kelly. The series is a co-production between Endemol Shine
North America and Kudos, an Endemol Shine Group UK production studio,
and Amazon Studios.
A group of young adults, who meet online, are mercilessly hunted by a
shadowy deep state organization after they come in to 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 in to 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.”
“Utopia is pure creative catnip to me. 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,” said Gillian Flynn.
Diederick Santer, CEO of Kudos said; “Dennis Kelly and the team at
Kudos created a unique, dark and gripping British thriller, and we are
incredibly excited that it has been so brilliantly reimagined by
Gillian Flynn for a new global audience.”
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.