Podcasting studio Orbit Media signed a development deal with Fisher Stevens’ production company Highly Flammable.
Just one year after signing with WME, the podcast company has now firmly leaned into film and television development, exclusively with the “Short Circuit” actor’s production company. The deal provides development funds for Orbit’s podcast IP and a first look deal for Highly Flammable.
“I joined the Orbit team because I love the characters and the stories of the podcasts. These are TV shows waiting to be made and my team at Highly Flammable and I are ready to roll up our sleeves,” said Stevens, who plans to direct some of the screen adaptations.
The company has started by developing the podcast network’s leading podcast “The Burden” as a scripted series. “The Burden” Season 1 tells the true story of an NYPD detective Louis Scarcella and the jailhouse law firm that brought him down.
“Orbit is lucky to have found in Highly Flammable a partner that ‘gets it,’” co-founder of Orbit Media Steve Fishman said. “We’re both in the business of telling gripping stories that change the conversation. I’ve known Fisher for years and I don’t think there’s anybody better suited to bring our stories to the screen.”
Orbit Media was co-founded by New York Magazine journalist and podcaster Fishman, lawyer and writer Dax Devlon Ross, Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning producer, director and actor Stevens and Marci Wiseman, former co-president of Blumhouse TV.
Stevens and Wisemen have teamed up to develop a project based on another installment of “The Burden” audio documentary series. “The Burden: Avenger,” which will be directed by Stevens, tells the true story of a 19-year-old Argentinian journalist Miriam Lewin, who was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires and thrown into a concentration camp for her political activism. After being one of the few to survive, Lewin brought her tormentors of justice. Alexis Bledel (“Gilmore Girls”) voiced Lewin in the eight-episode true crime podcast.
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