As part of her multi-year production deal with Netflix, TV producer and showrunner Shonda Rhimes is developing eight original series for Netflix, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Widely known for creating critically acclaimed and binge-worthy shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder, and Scandal, the television powerhouse recently unveiled the details for her upcoming Netflix projects.
Rhimes expressed her excitement to the L.A. Times about the evolution of her Shondaland production company: “I wanted the new Shondaland to be a place where we expand the types of stories we tell, where my fellow talented creatives could thrive and make their best work and where we as a team come to the office each day filled with excitement. Ted (Sarandos) and Cindy (Holland) and everyone at Netflix have been incredible partners in making that happen. This is Shondaland 2.0.”
The first original production will be based on the life of Russian-German Anna Sorokin, a 27-year-old woman who posed as a German heiress and scammed businesses, banks, and her affluent friends into financing her extravagant lifestyle. Last October, Sorokin, who used the alias Anna Delvey, was arrested for six counts of larceny and theft of services.
In addition to the story of Anna Sorokin, here are the details for the other seven projects that Rhimes will produce for Netflix, according to The New York Times:
- “The Warmth of Other Suns,” the award-winning nonfiction book by Isabel Wilkerson about the migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South to the North and the West. It will be adapted by playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith.
- An adaptation of The Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn, which is a group of lush romance novels set in Regency England. “Scandal” veteran Chris Van Dusen will turn this into a dramatic series.
- A series based on the book “Reset” by former tech executive Ellen Pao, which speaks on sexism in Silicon Valley. Rhimes reported that she would likely write this one.
- “Pico & Sepulveda,” a series set in Mexican California during the 1840s.
- A series called “The Residence,” based on the nonfiction book by Kate Andersen Brower of the same name, which centers on the private lives of United States presidents, their families, and White House staff.
- “Sunshine Scouts,” a series described by Rhimes as a “darkly comic, ironic, twisty show about some foul-mouthed teenage girls who are trapped at the end of the world.” Writer and director Jill Alexander will take charge of this one.
- “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker,” a documentary based on dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen and her reimagining of the Nutcracker.
