By: Mike Fleming Jr
EXCLUSIVE: HBO has acquired Cutblock, a dramatic thriller it is putting in development as a limited series that tracks a family of west coast timber fallers in their century-long pursuit of prosperity. The series is being written, directed and executive produced by Andrew Cividino and Trey Edward Shults. Also exec producing are Hyperobject Industries’ Adam McKay and Betsy Koch.
Cividino made his directing debut on Sleeping Giant, which had its world premiere at Critics’ Week in Cannes and went on to win prizes at TIFF, Munich, Locarno, and Mumbai. He won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the POPTV/CBC series Schitt’s Creek. Shults made his directing debut on Krisha, an emotional re-telling of the real life incident in which Shults’ cousin’s alcoholism relapses over the course of a Thanksgiving family reunion. The film won SXSW, screened at Cannes 2015 and was released by A24. Pic won the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards, and Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review to name a few. He followed with the genre film It Comes at Night and his most recent film, Waves, was released in 2019 by A24.
McKay’s Hyperobject Industries projects is also in business with HBO on a limited series chronicling the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and another based on Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown’s upcoming book about Jeffrey Epstein. McKay and Bong Joon Ho are partnering to develop an HBO limited series inspired by Bong Joon Ho’s Academy Award Best Picture Parasite. Separately, McKay is set to re-team with Amy Adams, with whom he worked on Talladega Nights and Vice for the limited series Kings of America for Netflix. McKay and Messick continue to serve as Executive Producers on HBO’s critically acclaimed and Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series Succession. Cividino is represented by ICM Partners in the US and Vanguarde Artists in Canada; Shults is repped by WME and attorney Alan S. Wertheimer.