“Gone Girl” screenwriter and author Gillian Flynn has another TV series on the way. Already an exec producer and writer on “Sharp Objects,” an HBO miniseries set to debut in 2018, the multi-hyphenate just received a series order for “Utopia” from Amazon. She’s credited as creator of the thriller based on Dennis Kelly’s British series of the same name. Variety reports that Flynn also signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios, with “Utopia” being the first project under the pact.
The show follows 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,” the source summarizes. “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 is set to serve as showrunner on “Utopia,” which she’ll also EP. Season 1 will consist of nine episodes.
“‘Utopia’ is pure creative catnip to me,” Flynn said. “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.”
Nick Hall, head of alternative series for Amazon Studios, added, “We are huge fans of Gillian Flynn’s electrifying work. 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” originally found a home at HBO back in 2014 but the premium cable network was “reportedly unable to come to term with the show’s budget,” according to Variety.
“Sharp Objects” doesn’t have a premiere date yet. Based on Flynn’s 2006 novel of the name, the Amy Adams-starrer centers on a newspaper reporter who returns to her hometown to cover the murder of two preteen girls. “UnREAL” co-creator Marti Noxon serves as showrunner.
Flynn started her career as a crime reporter, but soon left the field for a job writing for Entertainment Weekly. “Very quickly, I discovered I did not have what it takes to be a good crime reporter: I was too unassertive and a little bit wimpy,” she explained. “It was very clear that was not what I was going to do, but I loved journalism, and I’m the daughter of a film professor, and my mom taught reading. I grew up in a house full of books. So I applied straight to EW right out of Northwestern, [where I got my master’s.]” Her novels have been published in over 40 languages.
