EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation involving 11 bidders, Netflix has landed The Decorator, a drama series based on a short story by Cody Behan (Tyrant). Behan is writing the adaptation, now in development, which he executive produces with Stacey Sher (Django Unchained).
The plot details are being kept under wraps but the series is a psychosexual drama set in the cutthroat world of luxury interior design in Los Angeles.
Behan’s short story was among a couple of buzzy packages/specs to hit the TV marketplace in January. It received a lot of interest and, after a lengthy process, closed a deal at Netflix which has committed to a 20-week writers room, sources said.
It is the latest competitive TV project to go to Netflix over the past several months, following Next Door, starring Tessa Thompson, as well as a few that received straight-to-series orders: So Far Gone, from writer Mark Bomback; Joshua Zetumer’s spec Pagans; Black Hole, based on Charles Burns’ graphic novels, Rabbit, Rabbit, starring Adam Driver; and Trigger Point, starring Joel Edgerton.
Behan’s feature script The Diamond As Big As The Ritz, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, landed on the 2019 Black List. It is now in development as a series for WBTV with David E. Kelley producing. He co-wrote with David Weil the story for Weil’s upcoming Amazon MGM Studios thriller film Tyrant, starring Julia Garner and Charlize Theron, and previously wrote on Weil’s Prime Video series Solos. Behan, who also adapted his short story Saltwater Cowboys into a feature for Amazon Studios, with Gore Verbinski producing and Miles Teller attached to star, and is developing a TV show with Protozoa (Darren Aronofsky) and Putnam Pictures (Keri Putnam) producing, is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Sher has a first-look TV deal at FX Prods./20th Television. She executive produced the 2020 FX limited television series, Mrs. America, which earned 10 Emmy nominations. Most recently, Sher produced Chris Pine’s directorial debut, Poolman, starring Pine, Danny DeVito, and Annette Bening, as well as the A24 thriller, Heretic, starring Hugh Grant. Currently, she is producing the Amazon MGM Studios’ erotic thriller Verity, directed by Michael Showalter and starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett. Sher is repped by CAA and Gang Tyre, Ramer.
