Bob Greenblatt is partnering with “The West Wing” star Allison Janney and writer Alexa Junge (“Grace and Frankie”) to adapt the book “Confident Women” into an anthology series for Amazon Prime Video.
The project reps the first TV project for Janney, who is attached as a non-writing executive producer alongside her producing partner, Thruline’s Chris Henze. (She’s not set to star in the first season, but the door is open for her to appear on camera in future installments.) Janney and Henze brought the idea to Greenblatt, the former NBC, Showtime, WarnerMedia and Fox exec who has been busy as of late in amassing a new stable of projects in development.
Written by Tori Telfer and released last year, the book (full title: “Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion”) chronicles female con women in a range of different stories over the last several decades.
“I think it’s a really cool way to tell some female-oriented stories, but with a bit of a darker twist,” Greenblatt told PvNew. “It’s not ‘Dahmer.’ It’s not about serial killers. But these women have done some incredible things. Men have been getting the headlines these many, many years for doing criminal activity. And it’s time women got some equal time.”
“Confident Women” would tell one woman’s story per season, starting with the life of Sante Kimes, an American woman of Indian descent who perpetrated a wide range of cons and even is responsible for a couple of murders over several years.
“They’re all driven to this life for various reasons that of course, we want to get underneath it,” Greenblatt said. “And show you why. Some of these stories are really, really incredible.”
Greenblatt previously worked with Junge on “The United States of Tara” at Showtime. Greenblatt, who served as a producer on “Six Feet Under,” will EP with Junge, Janney and Henze. Telfer is on board as a co-EP. The project will come from Amazon Studios and Thruline Entertainment.
“I’m so excited about working with [Janney] as she’s a dear friend,” he said. “It’s her first foray into producing and it was her and her producing partner, Chris Henze, who brought the book to my attention, and we jumped in together on it.”
Meanwhile, Greenblatt continues to be busy boosting development inside his new company The Green Room, which has a first-look deal at Lionsgate.
His latest project in the works through that deal is also over at Amazon Studios, targeted to Amazon Freevee: The dark comedy “Dirty Deed.”
The project, from writers Tom and Charlotte Melia, follows a woman and her two best 20-something friends who realize the only way to own a home may be to kill her terrible grandmother.
“The rich grandmother has this incredible house, she’s just this very onerous, terrible person,” Greenblatt said. “The friends realize that maybe the way out of their financial issues is to ultimately kill the grandmother. And she deserves that, as you see right off the bat. It’s a little bit of ‘Throw Momma From the Train.’”
Amazon Studios, Lionsgate and BBC Studios Los Angeles Productions (which also has a deal with Lionsgate) are all behind the show, which Greenblatt will exec produce, with Jon Wu as co-EP, for The Green Room. Also on board is Roberto Troni, as EP through Various Artists Ltd., while Angie Stephenson is EP for BBC Studios.
“Dirty Deed” is the third project to come out of Greenblatt’s deal at Lionsgate, where he’s also behind thelimited series“Death at Penn State” at Hulu andthe murder mystery anthology series“The Show Must Go On”at Peacock.
