EXCLUSIVE: The TV marketplace is fittingly closing out a busy fall with another bidding war over a drama project that has resulted in a straight-to-series order. Like most of the previous auctions, this one too was won by Netflix.
The streamer has nabbed So Far Gone, from writer Mark Bomback (Defending Jacob, The Wolverine), Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements’ Tomorrow Studios and Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan’s Story Syndicate with a straight-to-series order after the adaptation of Jess Walter’s bestseller was taken out recently with a script and backup script by Bomback and garnered interest from multiple buyers.
So Far Gone follows Rhys Kinnick, a reclusive journalist whose self-imposed exile in the woods is upended when his long-estranged grandchildren arrive on his doorstep after their mother disappears. When the children are kidnapped by a cult connected to their father, Rhys must re-enter the fractured world he abandoned. Joined by a bipolar retired detective and a sharp-tongued ex-girlfriend, he embarks on a wild and suspenseful quest to save them and track down his missing daughter, rediscovering his own capacity for connection along the way.
Bomback is writer and showrunner. He executive produces with Garbus, Cogan, and Nellie Reed for Story Syndicate; Adelstein, Clements and Alissa Bachner through Tomorrow Studios, an ITV Studios partner; and Walter.
So Far Gone joins several other dramas Netflix landed in bidding wars with straight-to-series orders over the past couple of months, including Joshua Zetumer’s spec Pagans in late September; Black Hole, based on Charles Burns’ graphic novels, and Rabbit, Rabbit, starring Adam Driver, both in October; and Trigger Point, starring Joel Edgerton, in November.
Paramount+ took one of the hot fall TV packages, legal thriller Discretion starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, with a straight-to-series order. Other projects that recently landed for development in competitive situations include a Clue live-action adaptation at Peacock and Skinny Dip, starring Amanda Seyfried, at Prime Video.
Story Syndicate, whose Head of TV Reed brought in Walter’s book, teamed with Tomorrow Studios through the companies’ first-look deal that also has yielded Reversal of Fortune. The limited series project about Claus von Bülow, the socialite who was accused in 1981 of attempting to murder his wife Sunny, with Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne writing, also attracted multiple bidders when it was taken out in July, landing at Apple TV for development.
Additionally, Story Syndicate and Tomorrow Studios have in the works a Geraldine Hart police procedural at HBO Max with writers Eileen Myers and Jerome Hairston.
Story Syndicate is a prolific producer of nonfiction content, most recently docuseries Harry & Meghan and Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer for Netflix, Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York for HBO and One Night In Idaho: The College Murders for Prime Video. The company’s scripted slate also includes a project based on the Idaho murders at Prime Video. It’s repped by CAA and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the one-and-only Mark Bomback to bring Jess Walter’s propulsive and deeply humane novel to the screen, and to be doing this with Netflix, expanding our deep relationship beyond documentary into our first scripted series together,” said Garbus and Cogan, who co-founded Story Syndicate, and Reed.
Tomorrow Studios, which is the studio for So Far Gone, is behind Netflix’s hit adventure series One Piece, based on the popular manga, which recently started production on its third season ahead of its upcoming Season 2 premiere on March 10. The company also has a TV series based on Elissa Sussman’s novel Funny You Should Ask, with Regé-Jean Page executive producing and potentially starring, in development at Apple TV.
“We are thrilled to be adapting this incredibly relevant, affecting and entertaining novel with Netflix. Kinnick is a character audiences will root for deeply as he unravels his own family mystery, which speaks so urgently to our time,” said Tomorrow Studios’ CEO/Partner Adelstein, President/Partner Clements and EVP Bachner.
In addition to the Apple TV limited series Defending Jacob, which he created and executive produced, Bomback also co-developed the TNT drama series Legends. His extensive feature resume also includes War for the Planet of the Apes. Bomback is repped by WME, Anonymous Content, and David Colden.
Walter is repped by John Hawkins and Associates, WME, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson and Christopher.
So Far Gone joins Netflix’s extensive roster of book adaptations, which include such series as Bridgerton, Virgin River, Ransom Canyon, Forever, Fool Me Once and The Queen’s Gambit and movies Society of the Snow, Frankenstein and The Woman in Cabin 10. As Deadline reported recently, in 2025 alone, book adaptations have generated over 4.5B global views on the streamer.
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