Another heated bidding war has been won by Netflix with a straight-to-series order. The streamer’s latest high-profile buy is Lovesick, a romantic drama starring and executive produced by Emmy winner Claire Danes (The Beast In Me, Homeland).
Written and executive produced by Sarah Treem (The Affair, House of Cards), who will serve as showrunner, Lovesick is based on the 2024 Israeli series of the same name, aka The Best Worst Thing (Choley Ahava), created by Rona Tamir, Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon for Israeli TV channel Keshet 12. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Keshet Studios, the U.S. production arm of format owner Keshet International, are producing.
Lovesick is described as a sweeping, modern romantic epic that follows the intense affair between two people whose lives unexpectedly intertwine. Annika (Danes), a renowned breast cancer surgeon, has just received her own cancer diagnosis. Her new patient, Nate, is a promising politician. The series explores their interwoven lives, delving into themes of love, sex, illness, death, family, children, health, medicine, and the meaning of life — all while Annika is simultaneously undergoing breast cancer treatment.
Treem and Danes executive produce alongside Keshet’s Avi Nir (Homeland, Our Boys) and Keren Shahar (Unconditional, Total Control) as well as former Keshet Studios President Peter Traugott (Echo 3, La Brea). The project stems from Keshet Studios’ decade-long tenure at Universal Television under a string of first-look deals; the company is now developing projects for Sony Pictures Television under the first-look pact parent Keshet International recently signed there.
“I’m thrilled to get to tell this story with the genius, Claire Danes. We’ve been looking for something to do together for a very long time and this character, Annika, is perhaps a mix of both of our wildest dreams,” Treem said. “To get to tell a story about all the things keeping me up at night anyway — life, death, children, love, middle-age, courage, science and faith — is an extraordinary opportunity I don’t take lightly in these turbulent times. We’re very grateful to Netflix for this significant commitment and we cannot wait to get going.”
This is the latest competitive TV project to go to Netflix over the past several months as the streamer has been aggressively filling its pipeline. A number of them Netflix won with straight-to-series orders, including Rabbit, Rabbit starring Adam Driver; The Corrections with Meryl Streep; So Far Gone, from writer Mark Bomback; Joshua Zetumer’s spec Pagans; Black Hole, based on Charles Burns’ graphic novels; and Trigger Point, starring Joel Edgerton.
At Netflix, Universal Television also has comedy series A Man On the Inside and Four Seasons.
Danes is coming off her starring role opposite Mathew Rhys in the Netflix limited series The Beast In Me, which earned her a seventh Golden Globe nomination and an 11th Actor nomination. She has won three Emmys and three Golden Globes, for the HBO movie Temple Grandin and two for the Showtime series Homeland, as well as another Golden Globe for her breakthrough performance in My So-Called Life. Danes, who previously worked with Keshet on Homeland, also based on an Israeli format, is repped by Michael Aglion at Signpost Management, WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
Treem is creator, executive producer and showrunner on the upcoming FX limited series Cry Wolf, inspired by the Danish format Ulven Kommer, which stars Olivia Colman and Brie Larson. Treem co-created and showran the Showtime series The Affair, which ran for five seasons and won a Golden Globe for Best Drama series. Her resume includes writer-producer stints on Netflix’s House Of Cards and HBO’s original iteration of In Treatment. Treem is repped by CAA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Leave a Reply