Mark Gordon Teaming With ProSieben On ‘Darkness Falls’ Procedural

EXCLUSIVE: While Mark Gordon-produced series are popular the world over, Darkness Falls marks the first time the prolific Mark Gordon Company is reaching into the international co-production space. MGC and Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland are in the final stages of negotiations for the development of the procedural that’s based on an original script by Erica Messer (Criminal Minds, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, The O.C.) and Janine Sherman Barrios (Criminal Minds, ER). Both companies will co-finance the development. The series will be exec produced by The Mark Gordon Company’s Gordon and Nick Pepper. Koby Gal-Raday, SVP International Co-Production & Documentaries, and his team will oversee the project on behalf of ProSieben. EOne Television will distribute internationally.

The series follows an elite two-person FBI team that enters small, isolated communities to solve the darkest, most twisted murders imaginable. Having spent countless years at understanding the nuances and complexities of small towns and homicide, these heroes are the best at finding the worst.

MGC is coming off the successful launch of ABC drama series Quantico starring Priyanka Chopra, and has the franchise spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders set for early next year on CBS. Just yesterday, Deadline reported that Gordon has set up Conviction at ABC. The network has given a put pilot commitment to the legal drama from the now-independent Mark Gordon Co., which is backed by eOne.

Darkness Falls comes on the heels of a number of other recent project announcements for The Mark Gordon Company, including producing In Harm’s Way starring Kevin Bacon at National Geographic Channel; financing drama series House Of Thieves and Neverwhere (which the company will also produce) from director Francis Lawrence and producer Erwin Stoff; and financing and producing The Ambassador’s Wife, a limited series with Anne Hathaway set to star, as well as produce.