Making a Murderer Duo Teams with George Clooney for Serialized Drama

LOS ANGELES: Sonar Entertainment has entered into a first-look deal with Smokehouse Pictures, founded by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and the first project under the new arrangement will be a drama series with Making a Murderer filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos.

Ricciardi and Demos, along with Nicki Paluga, will be adapting a serialized Huffington Post article by journalist Steven Brill as a scripted drama. America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker is the true story of a venerable pharmaceutical company that created a powerful drug and marketed it aggressively to children and the elderly while allegedly manipulating and hiding data about its terrible side effects. Ricciardi and Demos will also be directing.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be in business with George and Grant and their talented team at Smokehouse,” said Thomas Lesinski, CEO of Sonar Entertainment. “Smokehouse has a stellar track record of delivering commercial and critically acclaimed content. Smokehouse will be a great partner for Sonar Entertainment, as the two companies align perfectly in our approaches to premium TV programming.”

Clooney and Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures is continuing its push into TV with this Sonar deal. Under the arrangement, the company will produce drama and comedy series for cable and streaming outlets. Smokehouse already has Ms, a miniseries about Gloria Steinem and the founding of Ms Magazine, in the works at HBO, and The Studio, an ongoing series about a movie studio in the 1990s, set up at Showtime.