If this project sounds familiar, but not exactly the way you remember it happening before, it’s because the last we heard of aUtopiaremake (of the UK series), it was at HBO withDavid Fincher. It goes all the way back to 2014, in fact, when HBO signed Fincher to an overall deal and picked up theUtopiaremake as a six episode straight-to-series order. But the project, which hadRooney Marastarring, reportedly went way over budget, and after a year, HBO’s relationship with Fincher ended with his projects there having stalled out.
Now,THRis reporting that theUtopiaremake has moved over to Amazon, whereGone Girlauthor and screenwriterGillian Flynnwill serve as showrunner. WhenUtopiawas with HBO and Fincher, Flynn was a producer and also hired to write the U.S. adaptation. Now, she will be credited as the sole creator, EP, and showrunner of the series. This is all part of an overall deal Amazon has secured with Flynn, withUtopia(which is now a nine episode order) serving as her first project.
For those unfamiliar with the British series,Dennis Kelly’sUtopia"revolves around a group of young adults who meet online and 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."
Flynn said of the project,
“Utopiais 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.Utopiais 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 fun.”
Under the mandate of trying to find “the nextGame of Thrones” from CEOJeff Bezos(but who isn’t these days?), Amazon is in the process of adapting a number of high-profile series, including their hugely expensiveLord of the Ringsseries.Utopiadoesn’t have a premiere date as of yet, but we’ll update you with more as it happens.
