Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Television are developing a multi-part TV series based on Brian Muraresku’s book, “The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name.” Stone Village’s plans come after a competitive bidding war for the rights to the New York Times bestseller.
Published in 2020, “The Immortality Key” organizes a decade of research into the history of psychedelics and how substances may connect to humanity’s discovery of God, chronicling practices such as psychedelic beer that dates back to sixth century B.C. to psychedelic wine consumed in ancient Greece.
Stone Village bills the upcoming production as “‘Game of Thrones’ but with psychedelics,” teasing an “epic” scale for the project.
Steindorff, a founder of Stone Village, served as an executive producer on HBO’s “Station Eleven” and the 2005 miniseries “Empire Falls.” He is currently working on a project exploring doctors who prescribe psychedelic therapy. The project is based on an optioned Los Angeles Magazine article, “Shrooms! Shamans! Kosher LSD!” by Peter Kiefer. Steindorff has also acquired rights to Dr. Julie Holland’s “Good Chemistry: The Science of Connection From Soul to Psychedelics.”
“Beyond its focus on psychedelics, Brian’s book is one of the best pieces of writing on ancient Greece and early Christianity,” Steindorff said in a statement. “I have always been interested in this time period, but Brian’s unique and compelling way of sharing what many would consider to be dense facts, and the awesome characters we meet throughout his story, makes this, hands down, one of the best books on the subject. No doubt, this story is going to disrupt our system and all that we’ve known to be true.”
Stone Village Television’s recent productions include “Station Eleven,” the Netflix docuseries “Fire Chasers” and the film “Breaking Myths.”
Muraresku is represented by Emma Parry at Janklow & Nesbit Agency.
