Adaptive Studios Inks Deal For Scripted 'Astral' Series

Adaptive Studios, which recently rebooted HBO's Project Greenlight with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, has acquired the rights to Astral, a dramatic thriller digital series created by filmmaker and actress Sonja O'Hara.

O'Hara (Amazon's Creative Control) is also set to act and direct in the short-form series, a rare inclusion for indie episodic acquisitions. O'Hara, who is a speaker this week on the Indie TV panel at SXSW, said, "This is the time to be a female filmmaker and I'm excited to collaborate with Adaptive Studios to bring this provocative, inclusive, feminist story to life."

O'Hara landed the overall deal by meeting Adaptive's VP of Development, Digital at ITVFest (the Independent Television Festival) in Manchester, Vermont, a boutique festival for the world's best indie creators and executives, where O'Hara's previous series Doomsday won "Best Series". O'Hara previously created and starred in Doomsday, a critically acclaimed web series she made independently (see the first two episodes on Amazon Prime). Her pilot was awarded "Best Series" at ITVFest, HollyWeb Fest and Brooklyn WebFest and was nominated for the 2017 Streamy Award and the 2018 Indie Series Award. She also won "Best Director" at the prestigious New York Television Festival and was chosen as one of the "Ten Filmmakers To Watch" by Independent Magazine.

O'Hara is repped by Elaine M. Rogers of Meister Seelig & Fein and managed by Pulse Films.

Adaptive Studios, the studios behind Coin Heist (Netflix), has made a push into digital content with the launch of The Runner for Verizon's go90. The upstart studio that has put an emphasis on short-form content for digital platforms, has closed a $16.5 million Series B round of funding, led by AMC Networks with participation from Atwater Capital. Adaptive's partners to date have included HBO, Netflix, Verizon, Miramax, FX Networks, YouTube Red, Fox Animation, 21 Laps, Lionsgate, Gunpowder & Sky, Bona Fide Production and Blackpills. The series will be executive produced by Perrin Chiles, TJ Barrack, Marc Joubert, Stephen Christensen and Kate Grady.