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The Mastermind, a crime drama from Captain America: Civil War filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo based on Atavist Magazine investigative series, has been set up at FX for development. Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has come on board to executive produce via his FX Prods.-based 26 Keys banner. The Russos will executive produce and direct.
In April 2016, Joe and Anthony Russos’ Getaway Productions along with Skybound Entertainment, preemptively acquired rights to The Mastermind, an investigative series of articles from digital publication the Atavist Magazine, to develop it for television.
The serialized stories, written by Atavist founder Evan Ratliff, follow the illicit exploits of Paul Le Roux, a brilliant programmer and criminal cartel boss who becomes a Drug Enforcement Administration informant. The series has been compared to the wildly popular Making a Murderer in that the story of an elusive criminal kingpin unfolds slowly in written installments.
The Russos are the prolific filmmakers behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War as well as the upcoming two Avengers movies. The Mastermind brings them back to FX where they got their TV break directing the pilot for the network’s cult comedy series Lucky. The duo went on to direct the pilot for Fox’s Arrested Development, which earned them an Emmy Award.
Atavist is a multimedia publishing platform focused on long-form nonfiction stories.
