EXCLUSIVE: Sam Okun Productions has optioned Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich and the Space Race, a historical work from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wayne Biddle, for development as an ongoing one-hour drama series, Deadline has learned.
Based on true accounts, along with additional source material from the book, the show follows a rebellious MIT graduate who shatters glass ceilings to join NASA, where, under the mentorship of Wernher von Braun, mastermind of America’s space program, she becomes a rising star. But while navigating the roiling sexual, social and political landscape of the ’60s and the Cold War, her dream becomes a nightmare when she uncovers Von Braun’s dark past.
The show is described as character-driven, with two intertwined timelines, falling tonally somewhere between Lessons in Chemistry and Oppenheimer.
Bosch‘s Daniel Pyne will serve as showrunner and exec alongside writer-producer Michael Esser, who brought the project to Sam Okun Productions after taking a stab at a feature script based on the materials. Alive Entertainment’s Philip von Alvensleben and Okun will also exec produce, with Sam Okun Productions VP Christian Jean serving as co-EP. German production company Prodco ndF (neue deutsche Filmgesellschaft) is aboard a co-production partner.
We’re told discussions are underway with an A-list director for Season 1, with the team soon to begin shopping the package to broadcasters and streamers.
Said Okun, “Much like what he did with Bosch, Dan has an amazing gift and sensibility for simplifying massive amounts of story detail to tell a beautiful and compelling character-driven story for the times; and with Michael’s extensive research and expertise along with his remarkable story telling abilities, Dark Side of the Moon will make for one stand-out show of a show!”
Added Pyne, “It’s a powerful and timely story about the price we so often pay for progress. Who we are, as individuals and as a country, is complicated, not black and white – defined by the decisions we make to succeed, or just to survive, and all those little lies we tell ourselves to justify what’s been achieved.”
Pyne is perhaps best known for serving as showrunner and executive producer on four seasons of Prime Video’s hit series Bosch. His feature writing credits include The Manchurian Candidate, The Sum of All Fears and Backstabbing for Beginners.
Sam Okun productions last produced Prisoner’s Daughter, the Catherine Hardwicke drama, starring Kate Beckinsale and Brian Cox, which was released by Vertical after premiering at TIFF. Recently completing post on the ensemble drama All There Is, featuring Elsie Fisher, Mena Suvari, Cheyenne Jackson, Jason Priestley and more, the company is also readying the international series Anatomy of a Scam, with Timothy Prager penning the adaptation and Daniel Calparsoro set to direct.
Pyne is represented by Anonymous Content and Rotham Brecher Ehrich Livingston; Okun by CAA, Latham & Watkins, and Skadden, Arps, Slate.