Noah Hawley, Matthew Baker Team For Lost Souls At Fox Searchlight & FX Pilot Why Visit America

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EXCLUSIVE: Noah Hawleys 26 Keys has set a new feature and a TV pilot with Matthew Baker, the author who has set Hollywood on fire with short stories that have sparked major bidding battles over the past year.

They will team for Lost Souls, a feature theyve just set at Fox Searchlight, and Why Visit America, an FX pilot theyll develop with Baker writing it, marking the first time hes done that. Hawley will exec produce. Both of these are based on Baker short stories, making this the fourth Baker short story that Hawley has made a deal to produce.

Lost Souls is set in a world in which some babies are born without souls. A young expectant mother is sent to an unusual wellness center in the desert, with the hopes that it will improve her chances of delivering a healthy baby.

Heres the log line for Why Visit America: Feeling the country has lost its way, the population of a tiny Texas town decide to secede. When the outside world fails to take notice, they use their new freedoms to redefine their lives and relationships.

Hawleys 26 Keys also has a deal at Fox to adapt To Be Read Backwards, with John Henry Butterworth adapting and Hawley attached to direct. That film follows a man who begins his life at his death and learns about himself as he, and the world, unravel in reverse, ultimately revealing humanity and mystery. Hawleys 26 Keys is also producing for Amazon Transition, which Joe Epstein is adapting. When a young man tells his family hes planning to transition, to shed his physical body and have his mind converted to digital data, his mother struggles to come to grips with what she feels is an unimaginable decision.

Baker short stories have sparked several recent bidding battles. Netflix closed a deal in competition for Life Sentence, with Matt Reeves and his 6th & Idaho producing. Eight suitors bid on that one; his short The Appearance, sold to Makeready got set up with The Picture Company producing.

Hawleys 26 Keys has generated the shows Legion and Fargo, and the Hawley-directed film Lucy in the Sky for Searchlight later tRead More – Source

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