Anderson Cooper Brings ‘Vanderbilt’ Drama to Amazon

Anderson Cooper is taking a shot at a scripted TV series — one based on his family history.

The CNN anchor will be an executive producer of Vanderbilt, a drama in development at Amazon’s Prime Video. Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death, The Girl From Plainville) is set to write and executive produce, adapting Cooper and Katherine Howe’s 2021 book Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty. Universal Studio Group’s UCP, where Macmanus has an overall deal, and Amazon Studios are producing.

The project’s logline describes Vanderbilt as “an epic drama chronicling 400 years of the rise and fall of one of America’s most powerful dynasties. From the family’s humble beginnings in New Amsterdam, patriarch Cornelius ‘Commodore’ Vanderbilt weaponized cunning, cutthroat business tactics to amass unimaginable wealth, leading to power struggles between heirs over control, salacious scandals and financial ruin. That is, until Gloria, the last of the Vanderbilts” — and Cooper’s mother — “rises above her family’s complicated history and personal tragedy to pave her own path as an artist and fashion designer.”

Cooper has explored his mother’s and his family’s past on screen before, in the 2016 HBO documentary Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper. His and Howe’s book about the family’s checkered past was a best-seller and earned solid reviews. Vanderbilt will be Cooper’s first time producing a scripted show.

Macmanus and Cooper will executive produce along with Kelly Funke of Macmanus’ Littleton Road Productions. Cooper is repped by UTA and Janklow & Nesbit Associates. Macmanus is with UTA, The Cartel and Hansen Jacobson.