Yahoo News ‘Pachinko’ Creator Inks Overall Deal With Apple
Pachinko creator Soo Hugh is expanding her relationship with the teams behind the critical darling.
Hugh has signed a multiple-year overall deal with Apple and Pachinko producers Media Res. Hugh, who was previously at Universal Content Productions, will continue to serve as showrunner on Pachinko as well as develop new projects through her Moonslinger Productions banner.
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“For the last six years, I’ve been fortunate to call Apple and Media Res my creative family. Together, we dreamed big, and I am thrilled to be able to continue working with so many people I admire and cherish. Now, the homecoming is official,” Hugh said in a release announcing the news Monday.
Margo Klewans serves as president of Moonslinger Productions after following Hugh from UCP, where she oversaw programs including Joe vs. Carole, Lockerbie and the long-gestating Battlestar Galactica reboot. Klewans personally recruited Hugh to UCP and oversaw her deal as well as those of Sam Esmail, Etan Frankel and Selwyn Hinds.
News of Hugh’s overall deal arrives as season two of the AFI Award-winning drama Pachinko is expected to debut on Apple later this year. The show landed at Apple in late 2018 with a sizable script-to-series commitment following a massive bidding war. Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res (which also produces The Morning Show) won the rights to Min Jin Lee’s best-selling novel and, with Hugh, pitched the show around town. As Hugh previously told TV’s Top 5, producers did “seven pitches in four days” and received bids from Netflix, HBO, FX, Amazon, Hulu and Showtime before landing at Apple thanks in large part to the connection the showrunner made with Apple exec Michelle Lee.
Hugh has repeatedly stressed that she has a four-season (with eight episodes in each) plan to tell the multigenerational story. Hugh told TV’s Top 5 ahead of the show’s debut that each cycle would include “a departure every season that examines one crucial historical point in that story each season” and that each batch of eight episodes will reflect a season of the year, with the sophomore run expected to take place in the spring.
Hugh is repped by WME, Entertainment 360 and McKuin Frankel.
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