Sandra Bullock is teaming with Amazon and fellow executive producers John Legend and Akiva Goldsman for a musical dramedy loosely inspired by Bullock’s time in college
The untitled project, which is in development at the streamer, is set in the deep South in 1980s and the oppressive cultural norms that defined the place and time. The show will focus on a darkly offbeat young woman who defies expectations and sets out in search of love, community and, most importantly, an identity of her own.
The show will feature music and dance and traverse the worlds of drag culture, mental health and the AIDS epidemic while following a group of young outcasts who band together and dare to be themselves, despite facing real danger in doing so.
The idea sprang from conversations Bullock had with Goldsman (Star Trek: Discovery, Amazon’s Dark Tower series). Goldsman then brought in Marja-Lewis Ryan to help develop the concept; Ryan is now showrunner on Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q and will be a consulting producer on the Amazon project. K.C. Perry (The Originals, TNT pilot Constance) is writing the script.
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Goldsman also enlisted Legend and his Get Lifted Film Co. to help develop the show and curate the music, which will span ’80s pop, gospel and even opera. (The two previously worked together on WGN America’s Underground.)
The project will be the first series Bullock has executive produced since the ABC sitcom George Lopez in the mid-2000s. She was also an exec producer of her Netflix movie Bird Box and has produced a number of features in which she has starred.
Bullock, Goldsman, Legend and Perry will all serve as EPs on the Amazon project along with Get Lifted’s Mike Jackson, Greg Lessans of Goldsman’s Weed Road and Fortis Films. Perry was repped in the deal by attorney Eric Feig. Bullock is repped by attorney Cliff Gilbert-Lurie.
The project will vie to join a lineup of Amazon originals that includes the Emmy winner The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Bosch; Carnival Row; Hanna; Homecoming; the recently ordered YA dramas Panic and The Wilds; the Gillian Flynn thriller Utopia; the Greg Daniels comedy Upload; and the upcoming rom-com anthology Modern Love. The streamer is also developing a comedy starring Lisa Kudrow and Greg Kinnear from creators Lee Daniels and Whitney Cummings.
