‘Serial’ Is Becoming A TV Show Directed By The Guys From ‘The Lego Movie’

Last week, in response to the rampant speculation about the podcast’s second series, Serial host Sarah Koenig spoke out against her newfound notoriety. Making an offhand remark at an event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music she said, “I really miss the days when nobody gave a crap what I was doing”. “I wish I wasn’t worrying that sources were going to call somebody and be like, ‘Guess who I just talked to’. It’d be nice to just be like a troll in my basement again.”

Today, the news has been broken by Deadline that Serial is being turned into a TV show by the directors of The Lego Movie and Koenig has signed on as an executive producer. Not only that, but Koenig will be the basis for one of the main characters in the show.

She’s about to be more famous than ever and, with any luck, we’ll soon be getting a full multi-season big-budget equivalent of that Funny or Die skit from last year.

With many details still in the works, here’s everything we know so far:

Writer/producer/directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord and Fox 21 Television Studios have optioned the rights to the podcast, but it will also be made in conjunction with the original creators. Sarah Koenig, Julie Snyder, Ira Glass and others from the team at This American Life will be heavily involved as executive producers. And, though the show will be scripted, they’re still looking for a writer.

Importantly, it’s also been confirmed that the show will not focus on the murder of Hae Min Lee. The series will instead be about the people producing the podcast and the unprecedented recognition they earned through their work. Though this story will be told through the course of another investigation, it’s unclear if that will be fictionalised or the suspected focus of their upcoming season, US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

Either way, the team seem really into the idea. “Chris and Phil take an unexpected approach to telling stories and that is so appealing to us at Serial,” Julie Snyder told Deadline. “Developing a show with them is exciting because we feel like we speak the same language, only they’re smarter than us.”

Everyone else may take some convincing.

The podcast was controversial enough when it was operating within the realms of narrative journalism; for better or worse, these reporters created mass bias and doubt in a real murder case that still had ongoing legal considerations. Now, they’re adding the guys who made 21 Jump Street and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs into the mix.

So great the Serial podcast TV series will once again let people with no legal training defend a convicted murderer because he has a vibe.

— Adam Liaw (@adamliaw) September 30, 2015

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Feature image via Meredith Huer/This American Life.