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“Inventing Anna”/Shonda Rhimes Project
Shonda Rhimes is taking a page right out of New York Magazine to profile a prolific fraudster for Netflix. The inspiration for the series is pulled straight from Jessica Pressler’s incriminating article profiling Anna Delvey, a woman posing as a socialite new to Manhattan from a wealthy family in Germany. The crimes of the young “heiress” ended up totaling more than $200,000 and included multiple counts of theft and larceny, among other debts, such as sizable bills from high-end hotels in New York, a $62,000 Moroccan vacation, and several unpaid private jet trips. Despite her constant lack of funds, the socialite managed to keep her true identity, Anna Sorokin, a middle-class 20-something born in Russia who later immigrated to Germany with her family, under wraps by conning her friends and acquaintances out of huge sums of cash. With such a high-profile arrest and a story that feels too dramatic to be true, HBO and Netflix were quick to put projects into the works profiling the con woman. No roles have been cast yet, but Linda Lowy is adding talent for the series. The show is set to shoot in New York and Los Angeles, as well as Morocco and throughout Europe, starting in October.
“King Richard”
There are stage parents and there are sports parents, but for Venus and Serena Williams, the two extremes were intertwined. Warner Bros. is looking to take a swing at the man behind the champions, Richard Williams. The biopic has already cast Will Smith in the lead role of the uncompromising father who would stop at nothing to put his girls on the top of the tennis bracket. Reinaldo Marcus Green will direct the film, with Rich Delia adding talent. Production on the Williams biopic will start in January 2020, in and around the state of California.
“Made for Love”
HBO Max is planning to take a look at the ugly side of romance with its dark comedy series “Made for Love.” The project, based on the novel by Alissa Nutting, will follow a recently divorced woman trying to escape her ex, a billionaire executive in the tech industry, who has secretly implanted her with a tracking device. With the ability to see her and know her location as well as her thoughts and feelings, the device keeps the woman under the thumb of her suffocating and sociopathic ex-husband. The project, cast by Bright/Daniels, has already attached Cristin Milioti but has yet to add additional talent. Production on the half-hour series is set to start before the end of the year in Los Angeles.
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This story originally appeared in the Aug. 29 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.