Writers Battle It Out To Take On Max TV Sequence – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: The Harry Potter tv collection is transferring nearer to fruition.

In April, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed {that a} collection, based mostly on the basic wizarding world, could be coming to its streaming service Max.

Deadline understands that issues in Potterworld are actually heating up with a marathon of pitches underway from writers vying for the suitable to adapt J.Okay. Rowling’s seven books.

Martha Hillier, Kathleen Jordan, Tom Moran and Michael Lesslie are amongst those that are presenting their imaginative and prescient to the streaming service and Warner Bros. Tv, sources stated. It’s an fascinating mixture of Brits and Individuals. We’ve heard that the group of writers had been commissioned by Max to create pitches for a collection reflecting their tackle the IP.

We hear the primary spherical of pitch conferences occurred in LA this week and sources stated that the highest decisions will go on to the following spherical within the UK. It’s unclear how concerned Harry Potter creator J.Okay. Rowling, who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, has been with the method, however she is predicted to be concerned within the decision-making on the collection, which she government produces.

Deadline understands that there can also be a possibility for a couple of of those writers to be concerned and that Max is open to the potential for creating a couple of concept based mostly on Harry Potter.

Sources did stress that the method is in its nascent levels. A rep for Max declined remark.

Martha Hillier is a British author who was government producer of Netflix and BBC fantasy collection The Final Kingdom in addition to the spinoff movie The Final Kingdom: Seven Kings Should Die. She obtained her begin on British soaps together with EastEnders and Holby Metropolis.

Kathleen Jordan created Netflix collection Teenage Bounty Hunters, which was exec produced by Jenji Kohan. Jordan can also be working with the Orange Is The New Black creator on The Decameron, which acquired a collection order in 2022.

Tom Moran is a British author, who created Amazon collection The Satan’s Hour, which starred Peter Capaldi. He additionally labored on Amazon sci-fi collection The Feed and Rob Lowe cop drama Wild Invoice.

Michael Lesslie wrote The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes and was exec producer of AMC’s John Le Carre drama The Little Drummer Lady, which starred Florence Pugh, Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgard. At one stage, he was hooked up to Peacock’s reboot of Battlestar Galactica.

The Harry Potter collection will probably be produced by Brontë Movie and TV, the manufacturing firm chaired by Rowling’s agent Neil Blair, and Warner Bros. Tv. The pair will exec produce with Brontë CEO Ruth Kenley-Letts and David Heyman, who produced the flicks, was in talks to exec produce.

In April, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav stated that Harry Potter on Max will probably be “a decade-long one”.

“My spouse and I, we learn [the Harry Potter books] to every of our three youngsters….It’s actually transferring, for ten consecutive years, individuals will see Harry Potter on HBO; I imply it’s actually one thing,” he stated.

This caps a course of that started in early 2023 for Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO & Max Content material. He stated that earlier than it formally introduced the challenge in April, the corporate had been “making an attempt to be very near the vest”. “We haven’t gone out to companies. Now we have our personal inner course of the place we’ve been occupied with individuals however we’ve not needed to exit into the world. Now that the information is on the market, we’ll begin working with the Blair Partnership and we’ll begin going out to the enterprise.”

Rowling’s Wizarding World, spawned from her seven-bestselling Harry Potter books at 600M copies worldwide, spans retail shops, theme parks, a worldwide stage play, and a $7.7 billion international grossing characteristic franchise in addition to the $1.8 billion grossing spinoff Incredible Beasts motion pictures.