Netflix expands scripted with Bridgerton creator show

Netflix has unveiled a quartet of dramas at its Upfronts presentation in New York, including a show from the creator of Bridgerton that has Kim Kardashian exec producing and a medieval fantasy from A+E Studios.

Chris Van Dusen’s Calabasas is a YA drama centering around a school in the exclusive Southern Californian enclave, with the Bridgerton creator showrunning and executive producing alongside Kardashian, Alexandra Milchan and Emma Roberts.

Martin Salgo of Crescent Line Productions and Karah Preiss and Matt Matruski of Belletrist are also attached, with David Sweeney also attached as EP.

The series has been inspired by Via Bleidner’s 2021 book, If You Lived Here You’d be Famous by Now: True Stories from Calabasas, with the author attached as EP.

Van Dusen described Calabasas as “the kind of glamorous, bold, addictive, and emotionally-charged show I grew up obsessed with.” The project comes alongside a new creative partnership for scripted that has been struck between between Netflix and Van Dusen.

Podcast adaptation & medieval move

The Retrievals, meanwhile, is based on Susan Burton’s podcast of the same name that was created by Serial Productions and the Times New York, which explores a woman’s crusade against a fertility center after she and almost 100 other women were operated on without anesthesia because a nurse stole their fentanyl.

The adaptation has Molly Smith Metzler (Maid) attached as showrunner and writer, with LuckyChap and Quiet Coyote producing.

The streamer has also greenlit a drama based on Barbaric, based on the eponymous comic from writer Michael Moreci and illustrator Nathan Gooden.

It is being produced by A+E Studios and follows a ruthless barbarian whose cursed means he can only use his violence for good.

Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) is co-showrunner alongside Robert Rovner. Turner is writer with Jennifer Klein (Pearl Harbor) for US-based 100% Productions, while additional EPs include Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson for A+E Studios, Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost), FJ DeSanto and Damian Wassel for Vault Comics, Sam Claflin, Luke Carroll, and Michael Stevenson for Soft Claw Productions.

Netflix is also expanding its Harlan Coben strand, this time taking his Myron Bolitar character to screen.

David E. Kelley (Margo’s Got Money Troubles) and Kyle Long (Suits) write, produce and showrun. The series explores how the basketball player character - who has been appeared in 12 Coben novels since first appearing in 1995 - becomes a sports agent.

The dramas will join 40 US originals on the Netflix slate, of which 27 are returners. The streamer has also handed Dan Levy’s Big Mistakes a two-season extension, with the order coming alongside an expanded creator deal with Levy.

The streamer also used its upfront presentation to reveal it would provide live coverage of the Australia-based NFL game between LA Rams and San Francisco 49ers later this year, as well as adding three Christmas Day games.

A fifth season of Lincoln Lawyer has also been greenlit, with Netflix confirming it would be the show’s last outing. Love Is Blind is returning for an 11th season, while My Life with the Walter Boys, Quarterback and Running Point are also being extended.