Netflix is getting further into the tech world with Scott Z. Burns and Scott Galloway’s Thumblite . After a bidding war, the streamer has landed Media Res’ corporate thriller package starring Rosamund Pike with a straight-to-series order.
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Created and written by Extrapolations creator Burns, who serves as showrunner, Thumblite is set in Silicon Valley and examines the schemes, rivalries, visions and obsessions of the power brokers and their underlings as they vie for control of the most powerful industry the world has ever known.
Burns, Galloway and Pike executive produce alongside Greg Jacobs as well as Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer for Media Res.
Netflix beat a number of rivals to the package, but interestingly, we hear Apple TV+, home of two Media Res series, The Morning Show and Pachinko , did not engage due to the fact that Thumblite touches on the same world that its parent company primarily operates in, which would’ve created restrictions. (The streamer’s tech industry-themed offerings to date have been either genre, like sci-fi drama Severance , or limited, like WeCrashed .) That was likely a factor for Prime Video not vigorously pursuing the project.
Still, it was a healthy bidding situation, with Netflix coming on top by offering a rare straight-to-series order off a pitch. While more common during the streaming wars during the height of Peak TV, commitments of this magnitude without a script are pretty unheard of during the current post-Peak TV contraction.
Also fueling the interest was likely the fact that Thumblite is an ongoing series with a big star, a rarity amid the glut of limited series — the preferred TV vehicle for top talent — and that this is the first ongoing scripted series set in Silicon Valley since HBO’s eponymous comedy.
Netflix, which came out of the tech world to establish itself as a major media company, has been among the most active buyers post-strike, and Thumblite is expected to fit into the streamer’s push into elevated and prestige dramas under recently hired former HBO drama executive Nora Skinner.
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This marks the first scripted series from Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, who is best known for co-hosting the Pivot podcast with Kara Swisher. Galloway, who also hosts the Prof G podcast, is also a keen observer of the big tech companies. He wrote The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google , which tells the story of these tech behemoths, and was a big critic of WeWork, even being portrayed in Apple series WeCrashed by Kelly AuCoin.
Burns also wrote movies including The Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion and wrote and directed Amazon’s The Report . Other TV credits include directing episodes of The Loudest Voice and Californication.
Media Res, which is now backed by RedBird IMI, a joint venture investment firm led by Jeff Zucker, is also behind upcoming Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen series The Miniature Wife on Peacock.
Pike, recently seen in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn , earning a Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for her role, has wrapped Babak Anvari’s upcoming psychological thriller Hallow Road and has been tapped for a key role in Lionsgate’s Now You See Me 3 and for a cameo in Guy Ritchie’s In The Grey. Pike plays Moiraine Damodred in Prime Video’s The Wheel Of Time , whose third season will be released in 2025.
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