Audio giant Audible is sending around notice of a development and production deal with audio storytelling company Treefort Media, to produce original scripted audio series. Described as a “first-look development and production deal,” three shows are starting production now, each one featuring known film actors:
KILLING HOLLYWOOD: THE COTTON CLUB MURDER
Based on a shocking true story, this drama series stars Academy Award- and Emmy-nominated actress Juliette Lewis; Emmy-nominated actor Rainn Wilson; and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Christian Slater. When cocaine queen-pin Lanie Jacobs (Lewis) ditches Miami for Los Angeles, she meets Roy Radin (Wilson)—a washed-up theater producer with big dreams (and even bigger demons). Together, they team up for a shot at greatness: A stake in The Cotton Club, a star-studded film produced by Robert Evans (Slater), the (in)famous Hollywood legend behind The Godfather and Chinatown. But as egos, ambitions, and suspicions collide, it isn’t long before the deal turns deadly. The series is written by Daniel Thomsen and Jeffery Baker and produced in association with The Komack Company.
FISHPRIEST
Ethan Hawke leads in the dark and gritty, scripted police procedural and crime drama. Set in1993,Tommy “Fishpriest” Barth (Hawke) is a bounty hunter and former undercover cop in the Bronx. Just when he thinks he’s pulling his life back together, a dangerous crime syndicate reappears in the city and threatens to tear his life and his city apart. The series is created and written by Mike Batistick.
MORIARTY
He stands among the most infamous villains in all of literary history…but what if Sherlock Holmes’s famous arch nemesis, Professor James Moriarty, was actually an innocent man? “Moriarty” is set in an alternative Sherlock Holmes universe in which Holmes is actually a brilliant but evil force, and his nemesis, Moriarty, is a good man who is forced into the underworld after Sherlock frames him for murder. Dominic Monaghan stars as Professor Moriarty in this scripted series which explores what happens when traditionally good and evil characters are inverted and nothing is as it seems. Moriarty presents a complex look and an empathetic voice to one of fiction’s most notorious characters. The series is written by Charles Kindinger.
Treefort Media shows 11 podcasts on its website, and an impressive array of production partners including Spotify, LA Times Studios, Microsoft, SONY Pictures, and Horizon Media. The company specializes in premium fiction and unscripted audio storytelling, and was founded in 2018 by Kelly Garner.
“We’re thrilled to kick off this robust collaboration with Treefort Media, a formidable producer of supremely entertaining audio content,” commented Rachel Ghiazza, Executive Vice President and Head of US Content at Audible. “Audible listeners have an insatiable appetite for dynamic, high quality scripted audio and we can’t wait to serve them up with these compelling new series to start — and then even more to come.”
It is reasonable to imagine that Amazon-owned Audible and L.A.-located Treefort might explore moving these podcast franchises across the audio/video divide.
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