UCP to Develop ‘Skywatch’ for Peacock With Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door

Former Pixar artist Colin Levy’s sci-fi proof of concept short “Skywatch” is being adapted into an original series for NBCUniversal streamer Peacock.

In a competitive situation, UCP and Peacock landed the rights to Levy’s project. The series will be written and executive produced by Levy and Mike Sundy, with Levy attached to direct. Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins will exec produce on behalf of Fuzzy Door. Also exec producing are Lightning Hill Pictures’ Andre Danylevich and Fourth Wall Management’s Jon Huddle and Russell Hollander. Universal Studio Group’s UCP is the studio.

The original 10-minute short, written and directed by Levy and produced by Danylevich, was a passion project funded via Kickstarter that took six years to create, with the help of volunteer artists led by VFX Supervisor Sandro Blattner. It featured Uriah Shelton, Zach Callison and a cameo by Jude Law. Levy and Sundy co-wrote a feature script based on the short, which UCP and Peacock have commissioned to adapt for TV.

“Skywatch” the series will focus on an outcast teen who hacks into a ubiquitous drone delivery system to prank a school bully but “accidentally crashes a dangerous prototype – and finds himself entangled in a life-and-death conspiracy,” according to UCP.

Watch the original short below:

“Skywatch” is MacFarlane, Huggins and Fuzzy Door’s latest development project since inking an overall deal at NBCUniversal Content Studios — since renamed Universal Studio Group, a unit that houses UCP, Universal Television and NBCUniversal International Studios — in January. UCP is also developing “The Winds of War” and “Untitled Little Rock Nine Project” as part of that deal.

Levy, Sundy and Danylevich are repped by Jonathan Gardner at Cohen Gardner LLP, who negotiated the deal on their behalf. Levy and Sundy are also repped by Fourth Wall Management. Levy is represented by ICM Partners. Fourth Wall is represented by McKuin Frankel Whitehead LLP.

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