Athena, Starlings partner with Ben Silverman on wildlife crime thriller Shadowland

US production companies Athena Pictures and Starlings Television are teaming up with Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman to coproduce a female-driven wildlife crime thriller, titled Shadowland.

Jacqui Barcos

Created by Jacqui Barcos, directed by Darnell Martin (American Rust, The Good Lord Bird) and executive produced by Peter Elkoff (Sons of Anarchy, Chance), the scripted drama is set against the backdrop of Africa’s poaching crisis and is based on true accounts from two undercover operatives.

Nordic Entertainment (NENT) Group’s SVoD service Viaplay has picked up multi-territory pre-sale rights to the series in the Nordics, Baltics, Poland and the Netherlands.

Athena Pictures is a newly established production outfit headed by Sarena Khan and Andra Gordon, who will also serve as executive producers alongside Starlings Television president Chris Philip, CEO Karine Martin and Silverman.

South African writer and producer Rohan Dickson (Reyka) is part of the writing team alongside Barcos, who wrote the pilot. The project was developed in partnership with executive producers Natalya Pavchinskya (Buffalo Boys, Hotel Mumbai) and Jomon Thomas (The Man Who Knew Infinity, Hotel Mumbai) through S’Ya Concept.

Sarena Khan

Based on real people and events, the story follows a female wildlife activist who is thrown together with a special operations vet to uncover a plot to ambush a rhino translocation caravan. The pair expose a massive web of corruption and must take it apart piece by piece. In addition to the series, the team is building a social action campaign to drive awareness around wildlife crime.

“Shadowland is that rare series which not only takes us on an entertaining and emotional journey, but also sheds light on a dire situation in our world today. With such a strong team eager to tell this story, we are poised to excite and shock audiences around the world,” said Philip.

Athena Pictures, founded by Khan and Gordon, is an affiliate of American Entertainment Investors, which has been involved in features such as Sicario, 12 Years a Slave and Hotel Mumbai.

In related news, Starlings Television, part of Starlings Entertainment, is working on an English-language adaptation of Viaplay’s Swedish-language original Honor. The project is in development at NBC with Carol Mendelsohn (CSI franchise) executive producing alongside Maria Bello and Jamie Pachino is attached as showrunner.