There are few true fairy tales in Hollywood; even rarer are stories of genuine, enduring friendship. The Gansa-Gordon one is replete with both. The friends, who are going on 30 years since they first met as seniors writing their theses, suddenly have found themselves the town’s hottest writing duo. The Emmy wins capped a year of acclaim and ratings milestones for Homeland, including that famous endorsement from President Obama.
Joe PuglieseHomeland co-creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa are heading back into familiar territory.
Showtime sibling CBS has made a pilot production commitment to their drama Anatomy of Violence. The project, which is inspired by Adrian Raine’s upcoming non-fiction title, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, centers on a female FBI agent who starts working with a mysterious psychiatrist with whom she shares a past connection.
If ultimately picked up to series, Gordon would serve as the 20th Century Fox TV series’ showrunner, with long-time writing partner –and Homeland showrunner—Gansa on board to executive producer and write alongside him. Hugh Fitzpatrick, who runs Gordon’s 20th TV-based Teakwood Lane production company, is attached as a co-executive producer.
COVER: Homeland’s Secret Weapons: Inside the 30-Year Friendship that Stuck Together
The news comes a week and a half after the duo achieved a near sweep at the Emmys, where their CIA drama scored nods in the writing, actor (Damian Lewis), actress (Claire Danes) and best drama categories. The following Sunday, Homeland returned for its second season with record ratings — up 60 percent from its season one premiere with 1.7 million viewers tuning in — for Showtime. It has capped off a 30-year friendship for the reunited writing partners, who grace the cover of this week’s Hollywood Reporter.
Since singing his mega-deal, Gordon’s Teakwood Lane has been incredibly active on the development front. The company has set up Vigilant, a “superhero” origin story with Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis, as well as a family adventure drama with Invasion‘s Shaun Cassidy at Fox.
Gordon and Gansa, who got their start together on such series as Spenser: For Hire, Beauty and the Beast and The X-Files before going their separate ways for nearly 15 years, are both repped by WME.
Email: Lacey.Rose@THR.com; Twitter: @LaceyVRose
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