Will Graham Re-Ups First-Look Deal With Amazon Studios, Joins ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ As Showrunner

Nellie Andreeva

Click here to read the full article.

Amazon Studios has signed a new first-look deal with writer-director Will Graham and his Field Trip Productions. Under the pact, Graham has joined the upcoming Amazon original series Daisy Jones & The Six, from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, as showrunner. Field Trip is also producing Amazon’s pilot A League of Their Own, an adaptation of the Penny Marshall film from Sony TV, with Graham co-writing and executive producing alongside Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), who is in negotiations to star.

Based on the bestselling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six is a 12-episode musical/drama detailing the spectacular rise and precipitous fall of a renowned (fictional) rock band in the 1970s. Graham will executive produce with Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter for Hello Sunshine, and Brad Mendelsohn for Circle of Confusion. Scott Neustadter and Michael H, Weber created the series and also serve as executive producers, with Taylor Jenkins Reid as producer.

More from Deadline

“Will is a tremendous talent, with the ability to create fully realized characters and worlds across a broad range of genres,” said Albert Cheng, COO and Co-Head of Television, Amazon Studios. “Will has been with us since our early days as a studio and we’re thrilled to have him as part of the Amazon Studios family. We’re all so excited to see Daisy Jones & The Six come to life for our Prime Video customers.”

Graham is a homegrown Amazon talent. He started out as one of the founders of the Onion News Network, where he served as showrunner on The Onion News Network for IFC and Onion Sports Dome for Comedy Central. That led to him co-creating one of Amazon Studios’ first pilots, The Onion Presents: The News.

Graham also produced the pilot Salem Rogers for Amazon Studios, and wrote for one of the streamer’s first original series, comedy Alpha House, starring John Goodman. He joined Amazon’s Golden Globe-winning series Mozart in the Jungle as an executive producer at the beginning of its third season, and wrote and directed on the show.

For the past two years, Graham has been ramping up development for Amazon through Field Trip, which he started in 2017 with former UTA agent Hailey Wierengo. Stephanie Fischer, formerly of Tomorrow Studios, was recently promoted as Director of Development for the company.

“Amazon has been my home since the beginning, and at this point we are family,” said Graham. “Jen, Vernon, Albert and the whole team have nurtured and supported Field Trip since we launched, and we can’t wait to take these next steps with them. We couldn’t be more excited.”

Graham and Field Trip are repped by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone and Hansen Jacobson.

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.