EXCLUSIVE: Amplify Pictures is moving its indie TV financing model into the scripted space for the first time. The 100 Foot Wave studio has teamed with Duplass Brothers Productions to make comedic crime-thriller Sleep King.
Both L.A.-based producers have both been at the forefront of independently financing and producing their own TV productions away before selling them to networks or streamers, and we hear Sleep King will follow that model.
Jay Duplass (Somebody Somewhere) is directing and will write along with James Lee Freeman (Ricky Stanicky). Joe Lewis, whose company has independently produced multiple seasons of HBO surfer series 100 Foot Wave, is executive producer alongside Rachel Eggebeen, Colin King Miller and Luke Esselen for Amplify, the Duplass brothers Jay and Mark and their company president, Mel Eslyn.
Sleep King will follow Mike ‘The King of Sleep’ Chamberlain, the face of an Inland Empire mattress store chain who is convinced that his high school girlfriend, recently declared dead, is alive. He dives headfirst into an epic tale of dumb noir, which producers ay will be “a spiralling mystery tangled in family betrayal, drugs, soft rock and mattress sales.”
Development is currently underway, with production set to begin in 2026. Per the indie mode, the show’s being financed without a network, streamer or distributor attached.
Lewis and Jay Duplass have history, as they worked together on the Emmy-winning Prime Video series Transparent. At the time, Lewis was leading comedy and drama at the Amazon streamer and served as an exec producer on the show, which starred Duplass.
“Jay and Mark Duplass are pioneers—few have done more to expand the possibilities of indie television,” said Amplify Pictures CEO Joe Lewis. “With Sleep King, Jay brings his singular voice as both writer and director to a series that’s hilarious, mysterious, heartfelt, and fearless—the kind of commercial yet risky storytelling we built Amplify to support. We’re thrilled to be making this with Jay and James Lee Freeman, as well as Mark, Mel, and the Duplass Brothers Productions team.”
“Jay and Mark Duplass are pioneers – few have done more to expand the possibilities of indie television,” said Amplify Pictures CEO Lewis. “With Sleep King, Jay brings his singular voice as both writer and director to a series that’s hilarious, mysterious, heartfelt, and fearless – the kind of commercial yet risky storytelling we built Amplify to support. We’re thrilled to be making this with Jay and James Lee Freeman, as well as Mark, Mel and the Duplass Brothers Productions team.”
“We are thrilled to be getting into bed with Amplify on Sleep King,” added Jay Duplass. “Their no nonsense ‘make great stuff with great people’ approach is the dream for this very special project about crime, love, and retail mattress sales.”
Duplass Brothers Productions made waves in TV circles when it financed and produced Penelope before bringing on Netflix in the U.S. and Fremantle for international distribution. We recently wrote about the trend for indie-financed shows in this feature.
As for Amplify – also known for financing and producing its shows before selling them finished to buyers – this is the first scripted TV project it has put into production. The deal comes at a pivotal time for the company, as Deadline can reveal it recently closed another round of financing, including from previous investor Great Mountain Partners. This additional money has been earmarked for original series production and new initiatives.
Advocating for indie financing
Lewis has consistently advocated for indie-financed TV, and Deadline knows it has been in deep development on other high-profile scripted shows after beginning its operations in unscripted. Last year, Lewis told delegates at the MIA Market in Rome that independently-financed TV is the “solution” to many cash-related issues facing the biz.
Following the model Amplify employed on shows such as 100 Foot Wave, Sleep King will be either well into the shoot or at post-production phase by the time buyers are approached.
“HBO made 100 Foot Wave better, and they came in at rough cut stage,” said Lewis in an interview with Deadline. “The buyers can tailor it their service, which is an important piece of this,” added Amplify’s Chief Content Officer, Eggebeen. “There is still time for them to put fingerprints on it.”
The Sleep King greenlight comes after Amplify hired former CAA and Quibi exec Esselen for a senior scripted post, as Deadline first reported in November 2024. It also marks a new phase in the company’s mission to reset how TV programs are made.
Founded by Lewis in 2018, the idea of financing and producing shows before selling them to a streamer or network was borne out of the former Amazon exec’s concern that the regular development and pitching model left too much uncertainty for producers.
“The thing I find the riskiest is developing a show and going to pitch it in a traditional way,” he said. “You can deliver a genius showrunner and a great idea, and it still won’t go. That’s the thing that turns my stomach.”
Indeed, more and more producers are looking towards the indie film model for funding models for their TV shows and pilots, but few have invested in the strategy as significantly as Amplify.
Lewis said it has been “slow progress” to painstakingly explain the model to prospective partners over the years, but he now sees a shift in mindsets. “Over time people have heard it and understood it,” he added. “It is easier to understand and taking less time to explain.”
Lewis hired former another ex-streamer commissioner, former international Netflix exec Eggebeen, as CCO and ex-Disney production financier King Miller as COO in 2023, at the same as selling a minority stake to A24 and Vuelta Group investor Great Mountain, which valued the company at around $50M.
The Amplify team works to the principle that “buyers just want amazing things that make life easier,” as Lewis put it, adding: “We’re trying to provide the thing we would have wanted as buyers.”
“If a project can walk in the door and be so many steps ahead of other projects, it is fewer people hours for the buyer, and I see great benefit in that,” added Eggebeen.
Best known for the multi-season series 100 Foot Wave, Amplify has also branched out into theater, feature docs and podcasting. Last year, it was the co-producer of the Tony-nominated Gutenberg! The Musical!, and launched its first podcast, Pretty Sure I Can Fly, hosted by Johnny Knoxville and Elna Baker, and this year, a first foray into feature doc making, Come See Me in the Good Light, was sold to Apple following a premiere at Sundance.
However, it’s the scripted TV space that’s set to set the field for its future. Independent scripted TV financing looks less like the fool’s errand it did a decade ago, with more established players exploring the model, and Lewis and co are banking on early mover advantage in an area they expect to be a norm in the future.
“There is so much pessimism in the business, but we are so optimistic,” said Lewis. “Some of our success is luck, but the market wants this too. The more the business seems it’s not working, the more there is a need for this.”
The Duplass brothers are known for films such as The Puffy Chair, Baghead and Cyrus in the early 2000s. Their production house’s credits include The One I Love, Tangerine and the Creep movies. Eslyn has directed the likes of Biosphere, while Jay Duplass returned to feature directing this year with the domestic release of The Baltimorons.
Mark Duplass is best known on screen for his role in Apple TV’s The Morning Show, for which he has twice been Emmy-nominated, plus Zero Dark Thirty, Bombshell and recent Hulu series Great American Family. Jay Duplass is best known for his role in Transparent, appeared in FX series Dying For Love and HBO’s Industry, and is next starring opposite Jessica Chastain on Universal’s Other Mommy, and starring in Megan Park’s Sterling Point.
Duplass Brothers Productions is represented by CAA.
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