Murphy and Mann executive produce alongside Kapital’s Kaplan and Dana Honor and KatCo’s Katsky. Murphy was coming off AMC’s The Son, starring Pierce Brosnan, which also included historical elements, and immediately jumped on it. Kaplan and Murphy had been talking about doing a project together for 7-8 years but Murphy never sparked to an idea until Kaplan sent him a copy of Mann’s Tinseltown. Kapital and KatCo acquired the rights to Mann’s book in 2014 in a competitive situation. “We wonder how we got to where we are today, well, this is the origin story of so much.” “I believe this is a story about women in Hollywood and the resiliency of women in Hollywood,” Mann said. Some refer to the events in the book - and its adaptation - as the origin story of the #MeToo movement. He is a contributor to Architectural Digest, The Boston Phoenix, and The Advocate. There are also other aspects that make Tinseltown timely. Mann is the critically acclaimed author of Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Star, as well as The Biograph Girl and the novel The Men from the Boys.

That would mirror the setting of Tinseltown, which takes place in the early 1920s, immediately after the Spanish Flu pandemic. If the project goes to series, it will launch on the heels of a global pandemic, the current coronavirus crisis. “Their careers are upended and they find themselves pushed out of the burgeoning Hollywood studio system, a system Paramount founder Adolph Zukor has been building by strong-arming independent producers and exhibitors ravaged by the Spanish Flu shutdown.” “The show centers on four accomplished women filmmakers who get dragged into the grotesque media circus surrounding a murder,” Murphy said. 'Beantown' Workplace Comedy Set In 1773 Boston In Works At CBS From Dan Kopelman, Kapital & TrillTV

Wisecracker by William J. Mann