HBO Max has commissioned a pilot of Verbatim, an anthology series from Left/Right, Brett Weiner (Honest Trailers) and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films.
Verbatim is created and directed by Weiner, based on his New York Times digital series. The series will tackle actual events, with all dialogue taken from primary sources and presented verbatim. The pilot episode follows the story of the 2019 college admissions scandal, with production set to begin this Fall in Los Angeles.
Red Hour’s Nicholas Weinstock, Jackie Cohn and Stiller executive produce with Left/Right’s Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver, and Kathleen Lingo for The New York Times. Scott Lochmus (To Dust) and Michelene Starnadori (Unexpected) produce.
Verbatim began as a short film that screened around the country including at the 2014 Sundance, SXSW and Telluride film festivals and won the Audience Award at the Dallas International Film Festival. The New York Times expanded the film into a digital series that has garnered millions of views and made the official selection of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Program with Verbatim: The Ferguson Case in 2016.
Weiner started writing and directing by making viral videos on the Internet, including co-creating the Honest Trailers series, which has over 3 billion views. Weiner previously worked as a producer/director for ABC Digital, directing the original sketch comedy show Paper Dolls, as well as Declassified, the digital companion to ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Weiner is repped by CAA.
Left/Right also produce new ten-part documentary series The New York Times Presents with the New York Times, for FX and Hulu, groundbreaking political docuseries The Circus, which recently returned to Showtime for new episodes, and new docuseries (Un)Well for Netflix.