Writers Behind ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,’ ‘Shōgun’ and More Talk Early Development and Fresh Adaptations at Variety’s Night in the Writers’ Room
variety.comJack Dunn When Donald Glover first approached showrunner Francesca Sloane about adapting “Mr. & Mrs. Smtih” for Amazon Prime, she “started laughing,” and thought it was a “weird Donald Glover joke that he randomly spit out.” She was confused as to why he would pick the 2005 action-comedy of all movies, but as the conversation evolved, the project began taking shape in her mind. “We discussed why people get married, what is it like to fight for somebody, how would it be to take this big blockbuster hit and use our sensibilities of quiet moments and filter that throughout the series,” Sloane explained. “And also, what is it like to have a woman run and write this show in such a masculine-charged genre?
So, it started to sound like something that made sense to us.” As part of Variety’s A Night in The Writers’ Room, Sloane was joined by showrunner and creator of “Average Joe” Robb Cullen, writer and creator of “The New Look” Todd A.
Kessler, writer and creator of “Shōgun” Justin Marks, writer and creator of “Tokyo Vice” J.T Rogers and writer of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Bill Wolkoff to discuss how they developed some of 2024’s best dramas.
Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis moderated the conversation. “Shōgun” writer Marks shared a similar challenge with Sloane of “taking something that already existed” and honoring “all that works about it.” But instead of working from a mid-2000s action comedy, he started with a 1980 historical drama.
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