Annapurna Television has optioned the rights to Melissa Korn and Jen Levitz‘s non-fiction book Accepted, which examines the recent college admissions scandal that rocked the nation, Collider has exclusively learned.
DV Devincentis, who won a pair of Emmys for his work on American Crime Story: The People Vs. OJ Simpson, will write the one-hour limited series, which Sue Naegle, Ali Krug, and Patrick Chu will produce on behalf of Annapurna Television.
At this time, it remains unclear how many episodes there will ultimately be, or which network/streamer will release the series, though there will be no shortage of interest. Millions of Americans were outraged by the criminal conspiracy to influence undergraduate admission decisions at several prominent American universities. Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among the celebrities who have been charged with crimes since the college admissions scandal first came to light on March 12. At least 50 people have been indicted in connection with the scandal, which the government called Operation Varsity Blues.
Accepted will be published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Random House, and its authors are battle-tested journalists known for their meticulous research. Korn is a Wall Street Journal reporter who has covered various aspects of higher education for the paper since 2011, and for Dow Jones Newswires before that. She writes extensively about college admissions, including the Harvard affirmative action lawsuit that peeled back the lid on some legal entry points for wealthy applicants. She has also dug into the shifting business models for colleges and universities, campus sexual assault and for-profit colleges. Meanwhile, Levitz is a national reporter who covers general news, economics, courts and daily life from The Wall Street Journal’s Boston bureau. She and colleagues were finalists for the 2015 Pulitzer public-service award for revealing the cancer-spreading risk of a common medical procedure. She worked previously for The Providence Journal, where she was on a Pulitzer finalist team for coverage regarding the causes of the Rhode Island nightclub fire.
DeVincentis is no slouch himself. In addition to the acclaimed OJ Simpson series, his writing credits include the John Cusack movies Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity, the latter of which earned him WGA and BAFTA nominations. He’s currently developing several projects at FX, as well as an untitled Paramount film that will star Michael Keaton and be directed by Jay Roach.
Devincentis is represented by UTA and attorney Jeff Endlich, while Korn and Levitz are repped by Eric Lupfer at Fletcher & Company as well as attorney Linda Lichter.
Annapurna Television’s upcoming projects include the Netflix series Mixtape, which features an ensemble cast that includes Jenna Dewan, Callie Hernandez, Christina Milian, Campbell Scott, Madeleine Stowe and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
via Collider