U.S. Remake of Utopia Lands at Amazon, Gillian Flynn Attached

Amazon Studios has given a straight-to-series order for Utopia, with the remake of the British series coming from Gillian Flynn, the best-selling author and screenwriter of Gone Girl and HBO’s Sharp Objects.

Utopia is based on the British series of the same name written by Dennis Kelly that aired on Channel 4. The story follows as a group of strangers, who meet online, are pursued by an organization that is willing to kill them to get the original manuscript of a cult graphic novel.

The series is a co-production between Endemol Shine North America and Kudos, as well as Amazon Studios. Flynn serves as creator, executive producer and showrunner of Utopia, and executive producers include Jessica Rhoades (who Flynn collaborated with on Sharp Objects), Sharon Hall, Karen Wilson, Dennis Kelly and Diederick Santer. Sharon Levy, the president of unscripted and scripted television at Endemol Shine North America, will oversee production for Endemol Shine.

Utopia will be available exclusively on Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories.

Additionally, Flynn has inked an overall deal with Amazon Studios across TV, with Utopia set as the first project.

Flynn said: “Utopia is pure creative catnip to me. Dennis Kelly’s show blew my mind, and he has been so incredibly generous in letting me crack open his world and play around in it and make it my own weird, wild place. Utopia is all about exploring resonant issues within dark, twisted storytelling—it’s a series that’s urgent and current and a little holy-crap! but a hell of a lot of a fun.”

“We are huge fans of Gillian Flynn’s electrifying work,” said Nick Hall, the head of alternative series for Amazon Studios. “She crafts stories that hold her audience in a constant state of suspense and subverts the expectations behind her characters. She will deliver Prime Video members a series they won’t forget, and Utopia’s relevance is sure to connect with viewers around the globe.”

Diederick Santer, CEO of Kudos, said, “Dennis Kelly and the team at Kudos created a unique, dark and gripping British thriller, and we are incredibly excited that it has been so brilliantly reimagined by Gillian Flynn for a new global audience.”