EXCLUSIVE: Netflix‘s indie film division has preemptively acquired a pitch for an untitled law school thriller from Holland, Michigan‘s Andrew Sodroski, sources tell Deadline.
Netflix could not be reached for comment. While plot details are unknown at this time, the pitch is said to be described as a contemporary spin on The Firm meets The Wolf of Wall Street. Ben Pugh and Peter Dealbert will produce for the L.A. and London-based management and production company 42.
Most recently, 42 worked with Netflix as a producer on its sci-fi actioner Outside the Wire starring Anthony Mackie, which debuted at #1 and was watched by 66 million households in its first quarter on the platform. Sodroski’s pitch marks 42’s second pre-emptive sale in a row on the heels of The Bet, a thriller spec from Enemy‘s Javier Gullón that sold to Warner Bros for what we’re told was a significant figure.
Most recently, Sodroski scripted Mimi Cave’s thriller Holland, Michigan, starring Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal and Matthew Macfadyen, for Amazon MGM Studios, a forthcoming title that 42 produced alongside Blossom Films. Previously, he wrote and executive produced two seasons of the true crime anthology series, Manhunt. The first season, Manhunt: Unabomber, starring Sam Worthington and Paul Bettany, offers up a fictionalized account of the FBI’s pursuit of Ted Kaczynski. The second, Manhunt: Deadly Games, starring Jack Huston and Cameron Britton, chronicles the search for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games bomber and the media firestorm that ensued surrounding Richard Jewell and domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. Sodroski earned a WGA nomination for Unabomber, while Deadly Games was the most-watched show on Netflix for several weeks, when it made its way to the streamer from Spectrum, with nearly a billion minutes streamed.
Founded in 2013 and overseen by CEO Josh Varney, 42’s moved to aggressively expand its L.A. office over the last year, recruiting Dealbert from Pacific View, Chris Licata from CAA, Alex Goldstone from Anonymous, and Michelle Knudsen from MXN as manager-producers. Other producing credits for the company include the films The Silent Twins and The Courier.
Sodroski is repped by 42, CAA and attorney David Fox.