EXCLUSIVE: Sam Okun Productions has an option The Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich and the Space Racea historical work by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wayne Biddle, is being developed as an ongoing one-hour drama series, Deadline has learned.
Based on true events and using additional source material from the book, the series follows a rebellious MIT graduate who breaks the glass ceiling to join NASA. Under the tutelage of Wernher von Braun, the mastermind of the American space program, she becomes a rising star. But as she navigates the tumultuous sexual, social and political landscape of the 1960s and the Cold War, her dream turns into a nightmare when she discovers von Braun’s dark past.
The series is described as character-driven, with two intertwined timelines that sound somewhere between Chemistry lessons And Oppenheimer.
BoschDaniel Pyne of , will serve as showrunner and executive producer alongside writer and producer Michael Esser, who brought the project to Sam Okun Productions after attempting a feature film script based on the material. Alive Entertainment’s Philip von Alvensleben and Okun will also executive produce, while Christian Jean, vice president of Sam Okun Productions, will serve as co-EP. German production company Prodco ndF (new German film company) is on board as a co-production partner.
We’re told that talks are currently underway with a high-profile director for the first season and that the team will soon begin pitching the package to broadcasters and streamers.
Okun said, “Similar to BOSCH, Dan has an amazing gift and instinct for simplifying huge amounts of story detail to create a beautiful and compelling character-driven story for the time. And with Michael’s extensive research and expertise, as well as his remarkable storytelling talent, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON will be an outstanding show of all time!”
Pyne added: “It’s a powerful and timely story about the price we so often pay for progress. Who we are, as individuals and as a country, is complicated and not black and white – defined by the choices we make to succeed or simply survive, and all the little lies we tell ourselves to justify what we’ve achieved.”
Pyne is perhaps best known as showrunner and executive producer of four seasons of the hit Prime Video series BoschHis feature film authors include Candidate of Fear, The attack And Sneakiness for beginners.
Sam Okun Productions recently produced The prisoner’s daughterthe Catherine Hardwicke drama starring Kate Beckinsale and Brian Cox, which was released by Vertical after its premiere at TIFF. Recently completed post about the ensemble drama Everything there iswith Elsie Fisher, Mena Suvari, Cheyenne Jackson, Jason Priestley and others, the company is also preparing the international series Anatomy of a FraudTimothy Prager wrote the adaptation and Daniel Calparsoro directed.
Pyne is repped by Anonymous Content and Rotham Brecher Ehrich Livingston, Okun is repped by CAA, Latham & Watkins and Skadden, Arps, Slate.
