Ozark, the drama series starring, executive produced and directed by Jason Bateman, has landed at Netflix. MRC and Aggregate are producing the project, which was taken out last fall and has been in negotiations at Netflix for about two months. The Internet network declined comment.
In his retu
rn to television and Netflix, Arrested Development star Bateman is taking a dramatic turn with Ozark, created by rising feature writer Bill Dubuque (The Judge), which take place in the dark and dangerous world of drug-money laundering. The series takes its name from the location where it is set, The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.
As director, Bateman will be involved in establishing the creative vision for the series, working with Dubuque. The two executive produce with Mark Williams. Chris Mundy has come on board as showrunner.
Ozark, which eyes a spring 2016 start of production, joins MRC’s roster of pay cable/digital series that includes Netflix’s first original scripted series House Of Cards as well as Starz’s Blunt Talk, and the upcoming The One Percent and Counterpart for Starz.
For the past decade, Bateman has been largely focused on features, only returning to TV to reprise his starring role on the new installment of Arrested Development for Netflix, which earned him a second Emmy nomination. Bateman’s second movie as a director, The Family Fang, in which he stars alongside Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken, premiered to strong reviews at the Toronto Film Festival.
Dubuque last year sold to Universal his action-adventure pitch The Real McCoy with Chris Pratt attached to star. He also wrote the upcoming The Accountant starring Ben Affleck for Warner Bros. Bateman is repped by CAA, Lighthouse Management and attorney Tom Hoberman, Dubuque is with CAA and Zero Gravity Management.
