Amazon MGM Studios Preemptively Acquires 'Shadow Work' Series

Amazon MGM Studios will develop a one-hour series based on "Shadow Work," a short story by Adrienne Miller, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. The studio preemptively acquired the project after the producers fielded multiple offers in a competitive situation.

Miller will write the pilot and serve as executive producer. Marc Resteghini, a former Amazon executive, will also executive produce through his Jack Tar Pictures, which holds an overall deal at Amazon MGM Studios. Representatives for Amazon declined to comment.

The series centers on Genevieve Pearce, described in the logline as "an elite ghostwriter trusted with the secrets of the rich, famous, and infamous. She embeds in their worlds, excavates secrets, reshapes memories, manufactures redemption, and transforms the powerful into the people they want the world to believe they are. Because in Genevieve's world, whoever controls the story controls reality. But as she rewrites everyone else's stories, she's forced to confront the first story she ever helped rewrite: her own."

Miller brings a literary track record to the project. She is the author of the novel "The Coast of Akron" and the memoir "In the Land of Men," which chronicles her rise through the male-dominated magazine world to become the first female literary editor at Esquire. Under her tenure, Esquire won the National Magazine Award for fiction. She is also a frequent contributor to Vogue. Miller is repped by Gersh and Yorn Levine.

Resteghini currently serves as executive producer on the Amazon series "Young Sherlock," which received a Season 2 renewal in April. His slate also includes an animated adaptation of Tui T. Sutherland's "Wings of Fire" books, a feature adaptation of Lauren Oliver's upcoming novel "The Girl in the Lake" with United Artists, and a series inspired by the lyrics and characters of Billy Joel's songbook from creator David Weil and MGM Television. Before launching Jack Tar Pictures, Resteghini spent nearly a decade as a senior creative executive at Amazon.

With a preemptive deal, an established literary voice writing the pilot and a producer deeply familiar with the studio's machinery, "Shadow Work" now moves into development as a high-priority title at Amazon MGM Studios.