Latest in Sam Esmail

After adapting four podcasts into high-profile TV series, Homecoming, Dirty John and the upcoming Dr. Death and Joe Exotic, UCP is getting into the podcasting business itself with the launch of UCP Audio. The podcast network is set to launch in 2020 with The End Up, a scripted podcast starring LaKeith Stanfield (Atlant…

The new NBCUniversal streaming service that the company said Tuesday would be called Peacock will launch in April 2020 with original content that includes series reboots from the NBCU library among its fare. That list includes the return of a sci-fi classic: a new Battlestar Galactica, billed as an original series…

One of three editors on Sam Esmail's Homecoming, Rosanne Tan was asked to tap into the visual and sonic style of "paranoid thriller movies [from] the past," working within a broad conceptual framework set by Esmail, while trying to surprise him with the choices she made. Based on a podcast by co-creators Micah…

With his Amazon series Homecoming, Sam Esmail strived to create a paranoid thriller in the vein of those from decades past, turning to his sound team to ratchet up the dread through experimental means. Three of the series' key creatives, Kevin W. Buchholz (Supervising Sound Editor), Ben Zales (Music Editor) and John W…

On Sam Esmail's Homecoming, cinematographer Tod Campbell looked long and hard for his "Kubrick shot," standing on the shoulders of giants. A paranoid thriller in the vein of The Conversation, the Amazon series owed a debt to the cinema titan, drawing equal inspiration from the creeping zoom shots of Brian De…

Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail unwrapped only one big reveal about the coming final season of his series, which is known for tense action and psychological twists and turns. "Is anybody here a fan of British television?" he asked a packed Tribeca Talks crowd at the Tribeca Film Festival. He then offered a gift he hopes…

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Esmail is staying at Universal Content Productions (fka Universal Cable Productions) with a huge new four-year exclusive overall deal. In a competitive situation, UCP has re-signed the Mr. Robot and Homecoming executive producer and his Esmail Corp in a pact that ranks in the very top tier for…

USA Network has picked up a new crime anthology series from writer-executive producer Andy Greenwald, executive producer Sam Esmail, Universal Cable Prods. and Paramount Television. The first season, titled Briarpatch, starring Rosario Dawson, originally was ordered as a pilot directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. In…

When Sacha Baron Cohen left the Freddie Mercury biopic back in 2013, it was hard to imagine another chameleon who could step into the skin of the flamboyant 1970s-80s musical genius who died at 45 after battling AIDS. Then came Mr. Robot star Rami Malek who went from playing a paranoid introvert on the USA series, to…

Having already broken the mold on televised serial noir with Mr. Robot, creator Sam Esmail delves back into the genre with his Amazon Prime/Universal Cable series Homecoming, adapted from the podcast of the same name. The series streams November 2 but recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Esmail became…

The end is in sight for USA Network’s critically praised Mr. Robot. The drama series, from creator Sam Esmail and Universal Cable Prods., will wrap after its upcoming fourth season in 2019, Deadline has confirmed. After a white-hot debut that catapulted the show into the cultural zeitgeist and earned it a slew of…

Julia Roberts, apart from playing herself on Murphy Brown or doing guest shots on Law & Order and Miami Vice, had never acted in a TV series before taking the lead in Amazon’s forthcoming drama Homecoming. During a TCA panel devoted to the show, a half-hour thriller based on a popular podcast of the same name that is…