EXCLUSIVE: Cindy Holland and her team have officially announced themselves to the TV marketplace by scooping up a big package with a big commitment in a big bidding war. In Paramount+‘s first official greenlight since its parent company was acquired by Skydance, the streamer has given a straight-to-series order to Discretion, a legal thriller from A24 written and executive produced by The Husbands author Chandler Baker, which has Nicole Kidman (The Perfect Couple) and Elle Fanning (The Great) starring and executive producing and Susannah Grant (Unbelievable) executive producing.
Paramount+, led by Paramount’s new Direct-to-Consumer chair Holland, flexed some serious muscle to land the high-profile project, which sparked a bidding frenzy when it was taken out by A24 last month, resulting in seven offers, including multiple straight-to-series and writers room commitments — with Paramount+’s bid not necessarily the highest, I hear. It is the kind of statement Paramount’s new film leadership made shortly after the merger was completed by nabbing High Side, the hot movie package re-teaming A Complete Unknown’s James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet.
Those moves are part of a big content ramp-up by the new regime that has included a string of high-profile deals, including a blockbuster film and TV pact with Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer. Holland’s talent relationships forged during her 18-year tenure at Netflix are believed to have played a major role in both landing the Duffer brothers and winning Discretion.
In Discretion, which has an eight-episode order, Lenny (Fanning), a summer associate at a prestigious Dallas law firm, uncovers a web of NDAs masking a dark truth. When she realizes she signed the same agreement, her discoveries put her in the crosshairs of the firm’s most powerful female partner Sharon (Kidman)—upending their mentor-protégé dynamic and raising the question: who gets to keep secrets, and at what cost?
New Paramount+’s original play
There has been a lot of curiosity what Holland, who led Netflix’s foray into original scripted series with hits like House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Stranger Things, The Crown, Ozark and The Queen’s Gambit, will do in putting her stamp at Paramount+.
“We want to entertain all audiences around the world,” she told Deadline in August about her programming strategy, adding that she wants to expand upon the streamer’s current foundation of the Taylor Sheridan universe, the Star Trek franchise and CBS next-day programming.
She also revealed to Deadline at the time that Paramount+ will be buying from third parties “because we want to be programming the best stories regardless of what the producing entity is,” a departure from the streamer’s previous model of relying entirely on its sibling studios for scripted content.
According to sources, Holland and her top programming executive, Jane Wiseman, EVP, Head of Originals for Paramount+, had been sending out feelers to the creative community about their interest in premium female-driven drama series to compliment Sheridan’s male-skewing slate, with female thrillers near the top of their wish list.
Discretion fits that bill, and it comes from an outside supplier, A24.
Short story’s very short path to greenlight
The indie studio put the project together. It acquired the rights to Baker’s yet-to-be-published short story Discretion in a highly competitive situation involving multiple bidders. According to sources, the studio stepped up with a 7-figure purchase price and additional million dollars in script/development fees, making this one of the biggest IP sales of the year, especially for an unpublished short story.
A24 then attached Oscar and Emmy winner Kidman and Emmy nominee Fanning, reuniting the stars who have worked together in Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled, How To Talk To Girls At Parties and A24’s upcoming David E. Kelley series for Apple Margo’s Got Money Problems.
The studio also brought in Oscar and Emmy-nominated Erin Brockovich writer Grant, whose TV series credits include Fleishman Is In Trouble and Lessons In Chemistry, as an executive producer before taking the project out.
All in all, it took less than four months from the short story hitting the marketplace to the packaged project landing a series order, a very quick turnaround, especially by current TV industry standards.
Baker, who has a law degree from the University of Texas, Austin, is adapting the fictional short story, which is inspired by her experience as a corporate attorney. She and Grant are executive producing the series alongside Kidman and Per Saari under their Blossom Films banner, Elle Fanning, her sister Dakota Fanning and Brittany Kahan Ward for Lewellen Pictures as well as Linden Entertainment’s Jordan Cerf and Joe Hipps via his A24-based banner Cut To. Filming is slated to begin in 2026.
Hipps’ close relationship with Holland and Wiseman reportedly helped steer Discretion to Paramount+ where the project is expected to get a lot of internal support as one of the first new original series for Paramount+ 2.0.
Hipps and Holland were in a similar situation a decade and a half ago when, in his role as top TV executive at MRC, Hipps played a key role in the sale of House Of Cards to Netflix over a rival offer from HBO. It was Holland’s team’s first original scripted series that put the then-fledgling streamer on the original programming map. Hipps also worked with Holland and Wiseman on the hit Netflix series Ozark, which he developed and produced through MRC. Grant too has an existing relationship with Holland; she created and executive produced the Netflix limited series Unbelievable during Holland’s tenure there.
Baker has been in-demand around Hollywood lately; she is adapting her book The Husbands for Amazon MGM and Plan B with Kristen Wiig attached to star and produce. A movie adaptation of her short story Oh. What. Fun, which she co-wrote with director Michael Showalter, is coming up on Prime Video with Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, and Chloe Grace Moretz starring, and Baker and Showalter have another script in development at Sony3000. She is also developing a streaming adaptation of her novel Cutting Teeth.
Kidman just wrapped Practical Magic 2, slated for release in 2026, as well as TV series Scarpetta for Prime Video and Margo’s Got Money Troubles, She is headed to production on Season 3 of Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ series Lioness. Also upcoming is a third season of Big Little Lies, which is in development at HBO, and a possible followup to Netflix’s The Perfect Couple.
Coming off A Complete Unknown, Fanning stars in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which took the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. She is filming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and has Predator: Badlands coming up. Fanning also will be seen with her sister Dakota in The Nightingale, TriStar’s feature adaptation of Kristin Hannah‘s bestseller.
Discretion joins A24’s current series slate, which includes HBO’s Euphoria, Netflix’s Beef, Prime Video’s Overcompensating and Apple’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
Baker is repped by CAA, Writers House, Linden, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Kidman is repped by CAA, Media Talent Group, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Fanning is repped by UTA, TFC Management, and Hansen Jacobsen. Grant is represented by UTA and Adam Berkowitz of Lenore Entertainment Group.
Source link
