MUMBAI: Netflix and Shondaland have announced the first batch of series developed by Shonda Rhimes. The shows will chiefly be female-powered stories, several of which will be led by female creatives.
As per a report by CNN, the platform has revealed eight shows in development as part of the company’s $300 million deals with Rhimes and her Shondaland banner.
“I wanted the new Shondaland to be a place where we expand the types of stories we tell, where my fellow talented creatives could thrive and make their best work and where we as a team come to the office each day filled with excitement. Ted and Cindy and everyone at Netflix have been incredible partners in making that happen. This is Shondaland 2.0,” said Rhimes as quoted by a blog post.
The projects include the following series (all titles are working titles)
Untitled Shonda Rhimes Project
Based on the New York Magazine article-‘How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People’ by Jessica Pressler. Manhattan makes a new friend like no other. But is she the stuff American dreams are made of or is she New York’s biggest con woman? Is it a con if you enjoy being taken?
Untitled Bridgerton Project
Based on Julia Quinn’s best-selling series of novels, this smart feminist take on Regency England romance unveils the glittering, wealthy, sexual, painful, funny and sometimes lonely lives of the women and men in London’s high society marriage mart as told through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.
The Warmth of Other Suns
Based on Pulitzer-Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book of the same name, this powerful groundbreaking series tracks the decades-long migration of African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South in search of a better life in the North and the West between 1916 and 1970.
National Humanities Medal recipient, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and 2-time Drama Desk winning playwright Anna Deavere Smith (EP) is set to adapt.
Pico & Sepulveda
Set in the 1840s against the surreal and sensual backdrop of the then-Mexican state of California, the series tracks the end of an idyllic era there as American forces threaten brutality and war at the border to claim this breathtaking land for its own.
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change
Netflix and Shondaland have acquired the rights to Ellen Pao’s groundbreaking memoir detailing her life and career, including the lawsuit she brought against her former employer that sparked intense media scrutiny, shook Silicon Valley to its boys’ club core and pre-saged the Time’s Up movement.
The Residence
Netflix and Shondaland have acquired the rights to Kate Andersen Brower’s brilliant nonfiction book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, which offers a vividly accurate insider’s account of White House residence staffers and the upstairs downstairs lives they share with the First Families at one of the most famous homes in history.
Sunshine Scouts
In this darkly comedic half-hour series, an apocalyptic disaster spares a rag-tag group of teenage girls at sleepaway camp who must then summon their moxie and survival skills to weather the fallout and ensure all that remains of humanity abides by the Sunshine Scout Law.
Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s award-winning re imagining of the classic ballet, The Nutcracker.
