Amazon Orders ‘Utopia’ Series with ‘Gone Girl’ Author Gillian Flynn as Showrunner
Amazon Studios is moving forward with a nine-episode, straight-to-series TV order of Utopia, based off the British series created by Dennis Kelly. At the helm of the project? None other than Gillian Flynn, famed author of Gone Girl.
Flynn, who also penned bestseller Sharp Objects — which has been adapted into an HBO miniseries coming this summer — is serving as showrunner, executive producer, and writer of the series. The project will be Flynn’s first under her new TV deal with Amazon Studios.
“Utopia follows group of young adults who meet online and are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come in to possession of a near mythical cult underground graphic novel. They discover the conspiracy theories in the comic’s pages may actually be real and are forced in to the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world,” according to Deadline.
The original British series aired for 2 seasons between 2013 and 2014 on Channel 4.
“Utopia is pure creative catnip to me,” said Flynn. “Dennis Kelly’s show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place. Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling — it’s a series that’s urgent and current and a little holy-crap!, but a hell of a lot of a fun.”
In 2014, Flynn was first working on Utopia at HBO with David Fincher attached to direct and executive produce, but the project was put on pause because of budget negotiation issues. Financing certainly isn’t an issue with Amazon, especially with the mega-bucks Lord of the Rings spinoff TV series in works.
“We are huge fans of Gillian Flynn’s electrifying work,” said Nick Hall, head of alternative series for Amazon Studios. “She crafts stories that hold her audience in a constant state of suspense and subverts the expectations behind her characters. She will deliver Prime Video members a series they won’t forget, and Utopias’ relevance is sure to connect with viewers around the globe.”
