Talaria Media is beefing up its development pipeline with three new projects. Rising scribe Jamie Anderson, who has become a go-to creative for the Bobby Morgan-founded company, is involved in all three projects.
Anderson is attached to direct the wrestling drama Arigato Tokyo from a script by Mark Blutman, who won an Emmy for the Apple TV+ show Ghostwriter. According to the logline, Arigato Tokyo follows “aging wrestling superstar Annie Able, who travels to Tokyo to reignite the intense feud that made her and her Japanese counterpart famous. As Annie’s physical and mental health spiral before the fight, she forms an unlikely, unbreakable bond with her opponent’s son, setting her on a path to recovery.” Talaria is producing the project.
Anderson is also behind Good Egg, writing a script described as “a female empowerment story set in the mid-1800s” that “follows an emboldened trailblazer who must fight for the respect and cooperation of her barbaric, male colleagues as she aims to become the first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S.” It’s based on the true story of Elizabeth Blackwell, and in addition to Talaria, it counts Sean Robins of SR-48 as producer.
On the TV side, the Anderson-created single-camera comedy Leapfrog takes inspiration from the scribe’s relationship with her veteran father, and also uses tales from Unsealed, the book by former Navy SEAL Mark Greene. The series “follows a retired Navy SEAL as he struggles to adjust to civilian life, and is forced to work at a new-age spiritual center with his estranged daughter.” Greene serves as a technical consultant, with Morgan executive producing.
“We have a general philosophy of telling stories that are uplifting,” says Talaria founder Bobby Morgan of teaming with Anderson. “We wanted to focus on grit and resilience, and to some degree, add a little bit of humor to tough topics.”
The slate joins Sigma Force, a TV show in development at Amazon with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. The company’s previous projects include the Catherine Hardwicke feature Prisoner’s Daughter, starring Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale, the Emmy-nominated doc The Great Debate with Charles Barkley, and sports doc Saving the Roar, about the 2012 Penn State Football team.