EXCLUSIVE: Young Sherlock producer Motive Pictures is developing two new projects with Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, while bolstering its development team to manage a growing slate of dramas.
Motive previously collaborated with James on his first TV project, Get Millie Black, for Channel 4 in the UK and HBO in the U.S. Now James, who won the Booker Prize for ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’, has a brace of new projects with Motive. We hear one is called Marauders and is being billed as a blood-soaked odyssey into the lawless Caribbean, set during the Golden Age of piracy. The project is in development with an as-yet-unnamed broadcaster. The second work in progress is The School, a revenge epic and geopolitical thriller that plays out across the Americas.
“We pride ourselves on keeping very close relationships with the writers that we work with, and continuing to make shows with them, so it’s exciting to have these two new projects in development with Marlon James,” Simon Maxwell, founder of Motive and a former Channel 4 exec told Deadline.
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It’s tough out there for UK-based drama labels, but Motive has been getting scripted shows away including The Woman In The Wall and One Night. Most recently it made Prime Video’s Young Sherlock, which has been a big hit for the streamer. Hopes are high for a Season 2.
With several new dramas in the offing, Motive has bolstered its ranks. “We’ve just hired two new development execs to come in and really boost the pipeline,” Maxwell said. “We’re busy, we’ve got around about 50 projects on the slate at various stages.”
Liam George joins Motive after stints at Complete Fiction Pictures, where he worked on Lockwood & Co for Netflix and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, and The Ink Factory where he was part of the team on The Night Manager.
Daniel Brown joins as a Development Exec, having been at Happy Prince where he was a script editor on Disney+ series Rivals. His other credits include Code of Silence, Sex Education and British medical soap Holby City.
Looking ahead, Maxwell’s Fifth Season-backed label is working up shows including The Trading Game, an adaptation of former finance high-flyer Gary Stevenson’s autobiography, with ’71 writer Greg Burke adapting for TV.