Bryan Cranston Comedy ‘Dangerous Book for Boys’ Scores Amazon Series Order

Bryan Cranston is expanding his relationship with Amazon.

The retail giant/streaming service has handed out a straight-to-series order to The Dangerous Book for Boys, a comedy created by the Breaking Bad grad and Greg Mottola (Superbad), The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The six-episode half-hour comedy is based on brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden’s guide of the same name. The comedy is a co-production of Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television, where Cranston and his Moonshot Entertainment banner is under an overall deal. The series will begin production in the summer in New York.

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Here’s how the series is described: “Wyatt and his brothers are coming to terms with the death of their dad, Patrick, a wonderful, whimsical inventor who touched the lives of everyone who knew him. Patrick leaves the boys with a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys, and the how-to book inspires fantasies for Wyatt. While in his fantasy world, he reconnects with his father and learns life skills that help him navigate real life.”

Cranston and Mottola created the comedy, which was the first scripted project Cranston put in development back in 2014. The project was previously set up at NBC, which ultimately passed after landing the comedy in a competitive situation. Dangerous Book has been a passion project for Cranston, who in 2006 landed the rights to the British book after the Breaking Bad star was given a copy of the how-to guide book by co-star Anna Gunn.

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“There is no plot and there are no characters in the book,” Cranston recently told IndieWire, describing the series as “sweet and funny and honest.” “It’s a guide to how to embrace boyhood: How to build a fort, how to talk to a girl, what are the rules in baseball, what are the great battles in history. But there is no show. I was in Boston [performing All the Way] and running along the Charles River when all of a sudden it popped into my head how to crack this story!”

Cranston, Mottola and James Degus will exec produce, with Mottola set to direct as well as write the script for the first two episodes alongside Cranston.

Dangerous Book expands Cranston’s relationship with Amazon Studios, where co-created drama Sneaky Pete and the streamer’s upcoming anthology Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.

Cranston and Mottola are repped by UTA. 

Dangerous Book becomes Amazon’s latest straight-to-series order for a program hailing from male producers, with critics recently taking note of the statistic.