Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment Developing Feature Based On Podcast ‘Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra’; Tony Kushner And Danny Strong In Talks To Adapt

EXCLUSIVE: After drawing interest from several high-profile buyers, Rachel Maddow is partnering with one of the biggest players in town on a feature adaptation of her podcast Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra. Sources tell Deadline that Amblin Entertainment has optioned film rights to the podcast from MSNBC and Maddow’s production company Surprise Inside. Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger would produce the film for Amblin, along with Maddow and Mike Yarvitz n behalf of Surprise Inside.

As of right now Spielberg will just produce the film, with the director job open, but insiders add that his longtime collaborator Tony Kushner, (who will also executive produce) and Danny Strong are in talks to co-write.

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Ultra, a production of MSNBC and NBC News, is an eight-episode podcast series that examines the history of a seditious plot to undermine U.S. democracy 80 years ago, and the wild fight in and out of the courtroom to try to stop it. The series was executive produced by Maddow and former The Rachel Maddow Show producer Mike Yarvitz, and produced by Maddow producer Kelsey Desiderio. This is the second original podcast from Maddow and Yarvit, following their hit series Bag Man, which earned the duPont-Columbia Award. It debuted at No. 1 on Apple Podcasts in October and stayed there for four straight weeks—it has remained in the Top 10 since.

Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is one of many projects in Maddow’s expanding portfolio across NBCUniversal platforms. Since signing her new overall deal at MSNBC, where she went from hosting The Rachel Maddow Show five days a week to just once a week on Mondays, Maddow has begun zeroing in on the different areas she could focus on in this new stage of her career. Along with her agency WME, who signed her in August 2021, Maddow began looking at items across platforms that could be used as source material for future projects including books, podcasts, articles and scripts. Sources close to Maddow say that while she has been busy on that front, it was never about volume to add to her development slate but rather finding high-quality material to produce.

She would eventually land on Ultra, which she is writing and hosting. In recent months, she began meeting with several high-profile producers interested in adapting the show but ultimately the feature pitch made by Amblin, Spielberg and company was hard to pass up. The pitch became even sweeter with Kushner’s and Strong’s interest.

While her focus will be on the feature adaptation, Maddow is continuing to look for more projects especially on the limited series and doc front that would fit her brand.

The Maddow-hosted and Emmy-winning The Rachel Maddow Show was the most successful show launch in MSNBC history when it debuted in September 2008. She currently also leads breaking news and special coverage for MSNBC.

Besides WME, Maddow is also repped by Gibson Dunn.

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