Legendary Global Teams With Library Pictures For YA Series From ‘Sacred Games’ Creator Vikram Motwan
In yet another sign of India’s growing appeal for the world’s content financiers, Chris Albrecht and Legendary’s TV venture Legendary Global is teaming with Library Pictures International to co-finance and produce two seasons of a Hindi-language series from Vikramaditya Motwane, creator of Netflix’s first Indian original Sacred Games.
The YA dark comedy-drama will be executive produced, written and directed by former Phantom Films filmmaker Motwane, who is also known for directing Bollywood movies Trapped, Lootera and Udaan, which debuted at Cannes.
Motwane is considered one of India’s leading director-producers. After the second season of Netflix’s Sacred Games he partnered with Blumhouse to produce Ghoul, the three-part horror series which became the streamer’s second Indian original.
Abhay Koranne, who co-created the YA series with Motwane, will also serve as a writer. The logline is being kept under wraps.
The deal is expected to be a precursor to an ongoing relationship between Motwane and Legendary Global as part of Legendary Global’s continuing expansion of local language production.
Said former HBO and Starz chief Albrecht: “Nearly a half a billion people in the world speak Hindi presenting an urgent and exciting opportunity to deliver local language content that is both compelling and high caliber. That opportunity is central to Legendary Global’s mission, and we could not be more thrilled to do so in partnership with Vikram. His extraordinary reputation as a storyteller and filmmaker plus the astonishing voice of the central character in this piece, compelled us to take the unprecedented step of committing to fund two complete seasons of production.”
Motwane, will also provide production services through his production company Andolan, commented: “I am honoured and delighted to collaborate with Legendary Global and Library Pictures on this series and working with such visionaries as Chris Albrecht and Anne Thomopoulos who have inspired me through all of the groundbreaking shows they have commissioned. This is a story very close to my heart and I am looking forward to collectively creating an incredible experience for local as well as global audiences.”
Added David Taghioff, head of Library: “Vikram is a gifted storyteller whose talent and professionalism have led the wave of world-class episodic content coming out of India in recent years. As India’s market for local-language content continues to grow exponentially and transcend borders, we couldn’t be happier to partner with Vikram and Legendary Global to bring this truly incredible story to a global audience.”
Launched last December, Legendary Global develops, produces and finances premium scripted TV with a focus on projects built for the international market. Longtime HBO boss Albrecht joined earlier this year and the label already has a partnership in Spain to produce ten scripted shows per year.
LA-based Library Pictures, launched last Cannes by CAA Media Finance, was set up to support the local language production slates of filmmakers and distributors in the international market. Legendary are among investors in the label.
Via Deadline
