'Syriana' Director Stephen Gaghan Inks Fox 21 Pod Deal

Academy Award-winning screenwriter Stephen Gaghan has inked a pod deal with Fox 21.

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As part of the exclusive two-year pact, Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana) will supervise other writers as well as write cable projects for himself. The latter is a prospect that excites Fox 21 president Bert Salke, whose series roster includes Showtime’s Homeland and FX’s Sons of Anarchy.

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“Our business at Fox 21 is really becoming much more of a high-end, almost feature-like work, and we’re trying to find seminal writers doing their seminal shows,” Salke tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve been doggedly chasing him for years. Seriously, all bullshit aside, there’s nobody that I’d rather work with than Stephen Gaghan.”

Until now, Gaghan, who previously was under an overall deal at Fox 21 parent 20th Century Fox TV, had been largely focused on broadcast. Recent efforts included development projects at both Fox (based on the Backstrom books by Swedish novelist Leif G.W. Persson) and NBC (a Traffic-like drama starring Jimmy Smits).

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Gaghan, whose small-screen credits include The Practice and American Gothic, is repped by CAA and Hansen Jacobson.

Email: Lacey.Rose@THR.com; Twitter: @LaceyVRose