Blumhouse Television and Amblin Television have partnered to jointly option the rights to Annie Jacobsen’s upcoming book Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government’s Investigations Into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis to develop as a TV series.
Phenomena traces the U.S. government’s long-hidden history of military and intelligence agency experiments on extraordinary human functioning, including mental telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and other forms of extrasensory perception (ESP), for defense purposes. The book, published by Little, Brown and Company, is coming out next week, on March 28.
Blumhouse and Amblin are serving as co-studios on the project. Jacobsen will serve as executive producer, along with Amblin TV co-presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, and Blumhouse TV co-presidents Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold.
This is a reunion for Blumhouse TV and Amblin TV after partnering on another genre project, the 2012 ABC horror drama The River, which marked Blumhouse TV’s first series.
Jacobsen, a Pulitzer Price finalist, also authored the New York Times best-sellers Area 51, Operation Paperclip, and The Pentagon’s Brain. She’s repped by CAA.
Amblin Television, a division of the Steven Spielberg-led Amblin Partners, received 13 Emmy nominations for their HBO film All The Way, starring Bryan Cranston, and praised FX drama The Americans, currently airing its fifth season. The company also produces CBS’ freshman series Bull, NBC drama pilot Reverie and an ABC Studios comedy pilot presentation starring Rev Run and Justine Simmons.
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Blumhouse Television, a division of horror master Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Prods., is executive producing upcoming HBO series Sharp Objects starring Amy Adams and is serving as the studio for a limited series about Roger Ailes, shepherded by Oscar winner Tom McCarthy. In film, Blumhouse recently produced the hits Split from M. Night Shyamalan and Get Out from Jordan Peele.
