First Look Media’s Topic Unveils Scripted TV Development Slate

First Look Media’s entertainment studio arm Topic has unveiled its scripted TV series development slate, with projects from Alex Garcia Lopez (Utopia, The Walking Dead), Erin Foley-Chan (The President Show) and Channing Tatum’s Free Association, among others. This is the first round of projects in development at Topic, with additional works to be announced.

Written by Garcia Lopez, Hunger is described as a geopolitical thriller about the powerful, covert and dangerous business of the global food industry. With nods to Traffic and The Night Manager, the hourlong series “promises to be a provocative, uncompromising and international drama exposing an urgent and imminent crisis relatively unknown to the world,” according to the description.

Written by and starring Foley-Chan, Trying is a half-hour dramedy which follows Foley-Chan, a chronic people-pleaser who can’t resist helping everyone around her. When told that she is infertile and cannot have a child without arduous treatments, she’s forced to deal with her own problems — for once. Daniel Powell (Inside Amy Schumer) executive produces as part of his first-look deal with First Look Media.

Company 8, a new hourlong drama executive produced by Channing Tatum’s production company Free Association is based on Matthew Pearl’s non-fiction article from The Atavist. It tracks Willard Sears and his shoddy team of derelict young firefighters in 1800s Boston, who would later build the future of the United States Fire Department. Free Association’s Andrew Schneider is executive producing and will oversee the project for the production company, which is currently meeting with potential writers for the project.

In addition, two previously announced hourlong dramas have new writers attached, Gold Fame Citrus, with Jack Paglen (Alien: Covenant) set to write and The Apothecary, based on the bestselling trilogy by Maile Meloy, written by Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett (Madeline, Wimbledon).

“This past year, we’ve looked for great writers and exceptional material that reflects the state of the world, even if that’s indirectly,” said Adam Pincus, EVP of Programming & Development for First Look Media. “Television is clearly a place for the kind of ambitious storytelling we gravitate to, and we’re excited about this slate and all the projects we have coming.”

Topic is also executive producing and co-financing several films in various stages of development and production including: On the Other Side, currently in development, with Carey Mulligan attached; Rodrigo Prieto’s (Silence) directorial debut of Bastard, with Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff of Sikelia Productions, and producer Jordan Horowitz (La La Land) of Original Headquarters; My Abandonment directed by Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone, Down to the Bone) and starring Ben Foster (Hell or High Water, The Messenger) which recently completed production; Roman Israel, Esq, a feature film directed and written by Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) and starring Denzel Washington (Fences, Training Day) and Colin Farrell (The Lobster, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them); the documentary Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, directed by Brian Knappenberger on Netflix; and Risk, the documentary from Laura Poitras (Citizenfour) about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, which recently premiered on Showtime.