Hulu and Sony Pictures Television Developing ‘Hotline’ Drama

By Elena Vasquez

Hulu and Sony Pictures Television are developing “Hotline,” a crime drama series from John Swetnam and Steve Lightfoot. Swetnam created the series and serves as co-showrunner. Lightfoot serves as his co-showrunner and supervises the project.

What is “Hotline” about?

Hulu and Sony Pictures Television’s official description reads:

“A brilliant yet haunted operator at a top secret criminal call center breaks the rules to help an innocent journalist uncover a vast conspiracy, thrusting her into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the FBI, ruthless hitmen and her own employers.”

The premise places the operator between an innocent journalist and a wide conspiracy. The described opposition consists of the FBI, ruthless hitmen and the operator’s employers. Breaking the rules puts her in a deadly contest with all three.

Takeaway: “Hotline” combines a criminal call-center investigation with a journalist-led conspiracy chase.

Who leads “Hotline”?

Paul Shapiro executive produces the project through his Back East Entertainment banner. That completes the three-person senior team named in the announcement: Swetnam as creator and co-showrunner, Lightfoot as co-showrunner and supervisor, and Shapiro as executive producer.

Takeaway: “Hotline” has named creative roles and a named executive producer.

What has John Swetnam written and produced?

Swetnam wrote “Into the Storm,” a 2014 found-footage disaster film for New Line and Warner Bros. He also wrote “Step Up: All In” in the same year. “Step Up: All In” was the fifth and final film in the “Step Up” franchise.

He wrote the 2013 found-footage film “Evidence.” In 2015, he wrote the dance film “Breaking Through,” which he also directed and produced. He later wrote Netflix’s 2022 “47 Ronin” sequel, “Blade of the 47 Ronin.”

Across features released from 2013 through 2022, he contributed writing to five films while also serving as director and producer of the 2015 dance film “Breaking Through.”

On television, Swetnam wrote and produced CBS’s “True Lies” in 2023. Redefine Entertainment, UTA and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, LLP represent him.

Takeaway: His credits combine feature-film writing, directing and producing with television writing and production.

What does Steve Lightfoot’s television record show?

Lightfoot most recently served as co-showrunner and executive producer of “Spider-Noir” for MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video. He also worked as a writer and producer on “Hannibal,” “Narcos,” “House of Saddam” and other shows.

His showrunning record includes Netflix’s Marvel series “The Punisher,” which ran for two seasons from 2017 to 2019, Netflix’s 2021 novel adaptation “Behind Her Eyes” and Apple TV’s 2023 novel adaptation “Shantaram.”

Takeaway: His record covers Marvel, two novel adaptations and several writer-producer credits.

What comes next?

For Hulu and Sony Pictures Television, the next concrete step is moving “Hotline” from development into production under Shapiro’s executive production and the shared showrunning team of Swetnam and Lightfoot.

Takeaway: The series has a premise, two showrunners and an executive producer; its next milestone is production.