Variety reports that an American version of Call My Agent is currently in development at HBO.
While the original French series “Call My Agent” (also known as “Dix pour cent”) was set in a fictional talent agency in Paris, the American version is set in a sports agency. The official logline reads: “Four work-obsessed sports agents struggle to balance their personal lives and the needs of their clients in an industry where being an athlete increasingly feels like just the start.”
Sarah Schneider will write and executive produce the HBO version. Plan B will executive produce with Fulwell Entertainment’s Spring Hill Studios. Plan B is majority-owned by French media conglomerate MediaOne, which counts Brad Pitt among its co-founders, while Spring Hill was co-founded by NBA great LeBron James. Fulwell 73 and Spring Hill completed their merger earlier this year.
‘Dix pour cent’ originally premiered on France 2 in 2015 and starred Camille Cotin, Thibault de Montalembert, Grégory Montel, Liliane Lovere, Fanny Sidney, Laure Calamy, Nicolas Maury and Steffy Selma. After the show became a success in France, Netflix acquired it and renamed it “Call My Agent.” Season 4 has aired so far, with season 5 and a Netflix movie in the works.
This is the latest in a series of international adaptations of “Call My Agent.” There are versions set in Turkey, India, Germany, the UK, South Korea, etc., and it was recently reported that a Chinese version is also in the works.
Interestingly, if this project goes to series, it would be the third HBO show set in the world of sports representation. The premium cable network recently aired “Ballers,” a comedy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that focused on an athlete’s financial manager, for five seasons from 2015 to 2019. Prior to that, Robert Wall starred as fictional sports agent Arliss Michaels in the HBO comedy series Arliss for seven seasons from 1996 to 2002.
Schneider previously co-created the hit comedy series “The Other Two” with Chris Kelly. The show originally debuted on Comedy Central and then moved to HBO Max for its final two seasons. She and Kelly were twice nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Writing for a Comedy Series for their work on the show. Schneider is also a former writer for “Saturday Night Live,” and she and Kelly served as co-head writers on the NBC sketch comedy show’s 42nd season. She received a total of eight Emmy nominations for “SNL.” Her other writing credits include HBO’s new comedy “The Chair Company,” Netflix’s “Master of None” and CollegeHumor.
She is represented by UTA.
