Odysseus series sets sail with Stranger Things veteran Karl Gajdusek
Deadline reports that Tanweer, Tectonic and USATV are developing a grounded Odysseus TV drama for a planned shoot in Greece and Armenia.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
A new Odysseus TV drama is being assembled in Athens, with Stranger Things veteran Karl Gajdusek attached as showrunner and Halo director Roel Reiné set to direct, according to Deadline.
The project, titled Odysseus, is separate from Christopher Nolan’s movie The Odyssey, which Deadline describes as a blockbuster that has drawn strong reviews. Tanweer, the Greek distributor behind Nolan’s film, is producing the series with the newly launched U.S. production label Tectonic and U.S.-Armenian company USATV.
Deadline reports that the drama is being developed as an independent European-U.S. series and has been in the works for several years. The team is aiming to begin filming early next year, with locations planned in Greece and Armenia.
Gajdusek, who served as showrunner and executive producer on the first season of Stranger Things, is leading the series creatively. The pilot was written by Sean Finegan, Scott Windhauser, Noah Lang and Blake Hoss, according to Deadline.
A Bronze Age take on the legend
The team’s version of the story is being pitched as a grounded Bronze Age drama, according to Deadline, with a focus on ships, violence, betrayal and survival in the period that helped inspire Homer’s epic.
Rather than presenting the story as pure myth, the approach is said to put the characters against the political and historical pressures of the era before the Bronze Age collapse. Deadline reports that the producers hope the series can grow into a broader story world, and that there is understood to be interest from a U.S. network.
Reiné brings a résumé that includes historical and action-driven television. Deadline notes that he has worked on Washington and Black Sails, as well as Paramount+’s Halo and Netflix’s Wu Assassins.
The producers behind the voyage
The executive producer roster includes Vaagn Sarkissian of USATV, Jordan Dykstra, Denisa Juhos, Gajdusek, Finegan, Windhauser, Lang, Hoss, Reiné and Dionyssis Samiotis for Tanweer Productions, Deadline reports.
In a statement to Deadline, Gajdusek said the creative team is approaching the epic in a grounded, realpolitik style. He said Homer’s mythic stops can be seen as inner journeys, while the series will look for the human reality beneath them, including choices, losses, loves and survival.
Dykstra told Deadline the team began pursuing the project nearly half a decade ago, with the aim of bringing the story into the current cultural moment in an ongoing format. He said the goal is to deliver an authentic and exciting portrait of ancient Hellenic Greece.
Deadline also reports the representation for several of the key creatives: Gajdusek is represented by Verve and 360; Finegan by Verve, Anonymous and attorney Larry Kopeikin; Lang and Hoss by Persistent; and Windhauser by Zero Gravity.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.