London – Carnival Films, part of NBCUniversal International Studios, and producers of the celebrated series Downton Abbey, is developing a new drama series with acclaimed writer-producer Stephen Schiff (The Americans), producer Marc Shmuger and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney.
The first season of the series will be based on Gibney’s latest documentary Zero Days – which Shmuger and Gibney produced for Participant Media. Set in the world of true life cyber warfare, Zero Days tells for the first time the complete story of Stuxnet. Zero Days premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and opened this summer to great critical admiration.
The first season of Stuxnet (W/T) will be a stunning dramatic thriller about what happens when a self-replicating computer virus developed by the West to disable and destroy nuclear facilities in the Middle East, starts to spread beyond its intended targets, threatening the very security of those it was intended to protect.
Inspired by one of the most terrifyingly relevant stories of our times, the drama will tell a tale of hackers, spies, nuclear secrets, and how one clandestine mission opens the Pandora’s Box of cyber-warfare forever – a new era of global conflict without rules.
Carnival’s Nigel Marchant, David O’Donoghue and Gareth Neame will produce alongside Alex Gibney (who is also attached to direct), Stephen Schiff and Marc Shmuger. The show will be a Carnival production in association with Participant Media, distributed by NBCUniversal International Distribution. Participant Media will also executive produce. Alex Gibney is represented by UTA, Stephen Schiff by ICM Partners with Industry Entertainment and Marc Shmuger by Verve. Zero Days is released in the US by Magnolia Pictures and sold internationally by FilmNation Entertainment.
Downton Abbey received a total of 10 Emmy Award nominations for its final season this year, including a 5th consecutive nomination for Outstanding Drama Series after winning the Outstanding Miniseries or Movie category in its first season. The Americans is nominated for a total five Emmy Award nominations this year, including Outstanding Drama Series and both lead actor categories. Both series are also nominated in the drama series writing category.
