Jon Hamm to star and exec produce in Sony Pictures Television drama
MGM+ is adapting scripted podcast American Hostage, with Jon Hamm set to star.
The show, which has a working title of American Hostage, is from co-creator and executive producers Shawn Ryan (The Night Agent) and Eileen Myers (Mad Dogs), with Sony Pictures Television producing.
It is based on the first season of the scripted podcast and is a psychological thriller set in the 1970s that tells the harrowing true story of Fred Heckman (Hamm).
Heckman was an Indianapolis radio reporter who was thrust into the middle of a life-or-death crisis when hostage-taker Tony Kiritsis demanded to be interviewed on his popular radio news program.
Production will start in Winnipeg, Canada this autumn and SPT will distribute internationally.
Mad Men and Landman star Hamm is executive producing alongside Ryan, Myers, Connie Tavel, Sharon Hoffman, and Ryan’s MiddKid Productions partner, Marney Hochman.
Shawn Christensen (Criminal Content) and Gabriel Mason (Criminal Content) also serve as executive producers.
“The combination of prolific producers Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers, a singular talent like Jon Hamm, and our partners at Sony Pictures Television, is a match made in MGM+ heaven,” said Michael Wright, head of MGM+.
“This is a fascinating story about real people engaged in a real-time life-or-death struggle to keep a desperate hostage situation from spinning out of control, and I can’t think of a more gifted actor on whom to center the story than Jon.”
Katherine Pope, president at SPT Studios, said: “We couldn’t be more grateful to be making this show with our valued partners - MGM+, Shawn Ryan, Eileen Myers and Jon Hamm.
“An exploration of quiet heroism, American Hostage shines a light on our culture, revealing truths that still strongly resonate.”
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