Quibi, Lionsgate go Swimming with Sharks

Shortform video platform Quibi has greenlit Lionsgate’s series adaptation of George Huang’s 1994 film Swimming with Sharks.

Kathleen Robertson

Starring Kevin Spacey, the original Swimming with Sharks is a dark comedy drama about a young man (Frank Whaley) who graduates from film school and is hired as the assistant to an abusive movie mogul (Spacey).

In the shortform adaptation from Lionsgate, a young female assistant is at the centre of the story.

Kathleen Robertson (Boss) will write and produce the adaptation, while Tucker Gates (Homeland) will direct. Chris Cowles (Blocker) will also produce.

Jeffrey Katzenberg

Exec producing are Dana Brunetti (Fifty Shades of Grey) and Liz Destro (The Butler), alongside Jay Cohen and Stephen Israel who exec produced the original film. Production starts in February.

Quibi launches in the US on April 6 next year and has been steadily building up a slate of shortform projects since being announced by former Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman.

The firm has so far raised US$1bn in funding from investors including Disney, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, WarnerMedia, Liberty Global and China’s Alibaba Group.