Steve Blackman Developing ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ TV Adaptation, ‘Orbital’ Series As ‘Umbrella Academy’ Showrunner Renews Netflix Deal

Nellie Andreeva
·3 min read

With The Umbrella Academy headed to its fourth and final season, the series’ executive producer/showrunner Steve Blackman has re-upped his big, eight-figure overall deal with the streamer.

. - Credit: Netflix
. - Credit: Netflix

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Under the multi-year pact, Blackman will write and produce new series and other projects for Netflix under his newly launched Irish Cowboy production banner. He is currently developing two sci-fi series: Horizon Zero Dawn, with Michelle Lovretta, who also serves as co-showrunner. based on the PlayStation action-adventure game, and ISS drama Orbital.

Netflix had been looking to put together a TV series based on Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Down, set in a post-apocalyptic United States inhabited by robotic creatures and following clever outcast hunter Aloy, for the past few months.

“Horizon Zero Dawn and Orbital are elevated, event-level projects grounded in characters that fans will love and relate to, which are hallmarks of Irish Cowboy productions,” said Blackman. “We’re thrilled to be working with Netflix and all of our partners on developing these ground-breaking stories.”

Blackman has brought Fabrik Entertainment executive Abbey Morris on board Irish Cowboy as SVP of Development. At Fabrik, she worked on such series as Bosch, The Killing, American Odyssey and The Comedians, and produced the true crime show Interrogation.

Here are details about the two series in active development at Blackman’s Irish Cowboy Productions:

Horizon Zero Dawn 

Co-created by Steve Blackman and Michelle Lovretta, Horizon Zero Dawn is an epic sci-fi adventure series set a thousand years in the future, in a strange and beautiful world full of primitive tribes and high-tech machines, all built on the bones of the ‘Old Ones’ – the ruins of our present-day United States. The disaster that destroyed our world is long forgotten, but when these formerly peaceful machines mysteriously turn into dangerous hunters of all life, a young outcast named Aloy discovers that the only chance to save her world is to fight to uncover what happened to ours. First released in 2017 Horizon Zero Dawn has sold over 20 million copies globally across PlayStation 4 and PC. (*as of Nov. 28th 2021)

Executive Producers: Steve Blackman, Michelle Lovretta and Abbey Morris; Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions; Jan-Bart van Beek and Ben McCaw of Guerrilla; Roy Lee and Matthew Ball of Vertigo.

In association with Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions. Based on the PlayStation Studios video game created by Guerrilla

Orbital 

A thriller event series set on the International Space Station, Orbital is an original concept by writers David & Keith Lynch, who will co-create the series with Steve Blackman and direct an episode.

Executive Producers: Steve Blackman, Abbey Morris, The Lynch Brothers, Dan Lin, Nick Reynolds, and Jonathan Eirich

Co-Executive Producers: Ed Barratt and Richard Wylie

Blackman is repped by UTA and Felker Toczek Suddleson.

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