Drama Series About Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X’s Friendship in Development at A+E Studios

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes are teaming up to headline True Story, a Netflix limited series written and executive produced by Narcos: Mexico executive producer Eric Newman and produced by Hart’s HartBeat Production.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterIn a competitive situation, the George Lopez drama series “Once Upon a Time in Aztlan” has been set up at Amazon for development, Variety has learned exclusively.Lopez will star in and executive produce the one-hour series under his Travieso Productions banner.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterPeacock is developing a drama series about the FBI’s notorious COINTELPRO program, Variety has learned exclusively.Set in 1965, the series centers on Amos Harvey, a conservative black cop and veteran of the Korean War, who is forcibly recruited into the FBI’s secret task-force, COINTELPRO. His job is to infiltrate the Civil Rights movement to destroy the organizations from the inside.

EXCLUSIVE: The critically acclaimed historical drama series Underground, which aired for two seasons on WGN America, is heading to OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. OWN said today it has acquired the series to air beginning Tuesday, January 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The series, from Sony Pictures Television, will have a revitalized presentation on OWN, with newly filmed episodic introductions by cast members, never-before-seen behind the scenes footage and more, according to the network.

EXCLUSIVE: Nepal-born actress Dichen Lachman is set as a series regular opposite Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette in Severance, Apple’s upcoming workplace thriller drama directed by and executive produced by Ben Stiller. Severance takes place at Lumen Industries, a company that’s looking to take work-life balance to a new level with a “severance procedure,” which separates work and out-of-work memories. Scott stars as Mark, an employee with a dark past trying to put himself back together.

Famed Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga is getting the biopic treatment, with ViacomCBS International Studios, a division of ViacomCBS Networks International, now developing a scripted series.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Sony Pictures Television has optioned Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey’s bestselling book Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir, for development as a drama series. A search for a writer is underway.

EXCLUSIVE:  IMDb TV is developing Motorheads from John A. Norris and Cavalry Media, a coming-of-age ensemble drama that leans into the escapism and joy that comes from everything from changing the oil on your first car to your first kiss. In a blue collar steel town trying to reinvent itself, some characters will navigate the hierarchy and rules of high school, while others will be running from a dark past looking for new beginnings.

Pablo Sandoval As Argentina state film finance has dwindled, Argentine writers and directors are looking ever more to drama series creation as an alternative. MipCancun caught Argentine talent pitching 10 projects that have been awarded development coin by Argentina’s INCAA film-TV agency.

Matthew Vaughn's MARV studio —behind the Kingsman franchise and last year's Elton John biopic Rocketman —is making its first venture into TV with an ambitious new project set in the world of English soccer. Titled Day 1's, the show has been co-created by Doug Ellin, best known as the Emmy and BAFTA winner and six-time Golden Globe nominee behind Entourage, and Chris Case, who produced Mad About You and Spin City, with both acting as showrunners on the 10-episode series.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterArmie Hammer has signed on to star in “The Offer” at Paramount Plus, which will tell the behind-the-scenes story of the making of “The Godfather.”Hammer will star as Al Ruddy, who produced “The Godfather” back in 1972.More to come…

EXCLUSIVE: As the mystery at the center of Big Sky unfolds, so do the stories of the various characters living in David E. Kelley’s world. Set to join the ABC crime drama’s family are Camille Sullivan, Chad Willett and Patrick Gallagher in recurring roles.

Nellie Andreeva Co-Editor-in-Chief, TVEXCLUSIVE: A+E Studios has put in development Blood Brothers (working title), an eight-episode limited series based on the praised 2016 non-fiction book Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X by historians Johnny Smith and Randy Roberts.

Jamie Lang Miami-based BTF Media, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is planning a series reboot for Fabián Bielinsky’s Argentine modern classic “Nine Queens” (“Nueve Reinas”), a feature film which 20 years ago introduced the world to one of Argentina’s most bankable actors in Ricardo Darín (“The Secret in Their Eyes,” “Wild Tales”) and film-TV crossover superstar Gastón Pauls (“Todos contra Juan,” Pablo Larraín’s “Fuga”).It also established, just as the New Argentine Cinema was

Andreas Wiseman International EditorEXCLUSIVE: Historian William Dalrymple and journalist Anita Anand’s well-received history book Koh-i-Noor: The History Of The World’s Most Infamous Diamond has been optioned for a TV drama series adaptation by Paris, LA and Mumbai-based producers 185 Carat Films.The book charts the winding true story of the Indian diamond, the 27th largest in the world, which is currently part of the British Crown Jewels.

Peter White Television EditorRobert and Michelle King’s upcoming Coronavirus drama series for Spectrum Originals is getting its second wave of casting.Broadway stars Will Swenson, Phillipa Soo and Leslie Uggams have joined The Second Wave, which stars The Good Fight’s Audra McDonald, Orange Is the New Black’s Taylor Schilling and The Comey Rule’s Steven Pasquale.Swenson, who has starred in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and Hair as well as Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, joins as a