IM Global, Depp board music drama

Johnny Depp

US producer and distributor IM Global Television is partnering with Hollywood actor Johnny Depp and business magnate Richard Branson on a music drama series.

Muscle Shoals, based on record producer and songwriter Rick Hall’s autobiography The Man From Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame, is one of five new series put into development by IM Global.

The other series are I, Rebel, LD50 and adaptations of the book The Lesser Dead and graphic novel Planetoid.

Muscle Shoals hails from Depp and Christie Dembrowski’s Infinitum Nihil, Branson’s Virgin Produced and Joshua D Maurer and Alixandre Witlin’s City Entertainment.

IM Global TV president Mark Stern said: “Rick Hall and his small Alabama recording studio fundamentally transformed the music industry. His personal and professional journey and the incredible talent he worked with is a compelling story that will make a great television series.”

The company is planning to partner with sister firm IM Global Music to use songs from Hall’s recording studio as part of the series’ soundtrack.