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Cinemax is heading into a war zone.
The premium network is prepping a drama, titled Signal, from Boiler Room writer/director Ben Younger. The hour-long entry is inspired by true events and will look inside the clandestine world of military contracting during the Iraq/Afghanistan war.
Specifically, Signal will center on a young man who launches a propaganda business in the Middle East and gets rich on the back of millions of dollars of US Government contracts. Younger will write and executive produce, with Electus’ Ben Silverman and Sean Canino joining him as EPs.
“What drew me to this story was the opportunity to look at a decade-long conflict this country was knee deep in, from a totally unique perspective. From the specific perspective of a few people who were there, both on the ground in Baghdad, and in Crystal City navigating the world of contractors this war spawned,” Younger tells The Hollywood Reporter.
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He adds: “I am a news junkie and yet I still feel like I don’t truly understand all of the events that transpired in Iraq those first two years after Baghdad fell. Bremmer, De-Bathification and the sectarian war that followed. What were the actual events that led from us being liberators to occupiers? How did some D.O.D. contractors end up making hundreds of millions of dollars? How did we blow it so badly?”
Signal comes at a time when Cinemax continues to bulk up its high-end originals, with Banshee and Strike Back already on the schedule. The network will add Steven Soderbergh’s drama The Knick, starring Clive Owen, later this summer.
Younger, who wrote and directed 2000’s Boiler Room and 2005’s Prime, will split his time between the Cinemax series and his feature entry, Bleed For This, which will tell the story of world champion boxer Vinny Pazienza. He’s on board to write and direct Bleed, with Miles Teller and Aaron Eckhart attached to star and Martin Scorsese executive producing.
Silverman, too, has been active of late, selling suspense thriller The Chairman to Spike and a Jonathan Ames dramedy to Showtime. He’s also attached as an executive producer on the CW’s upcoming telenolvela adaptation Jane the Virgin and forthcoming Netflix drama Marco Polo.
Younger is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham.
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