The production team behind Orange Is the New Black is developing an anthology series for Netflix around the new realities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The anthology series, titled Social Distance, will be centered around the “new, bizarre, bewildering reality we are all experiencing,” according to the show’s producers. Hilary Weisman Graham will serve as the showrunner while Graham, Jenji Kohan, Tara Herrmann, and BLack McCormick will all executive produce.
“We feel passionate about finding connection as we all remain at a distance,” they said in a statement. “We’ve been inspired to create an anthology series that tells stories about the current moment we are living through—the unique, personal, deeply human stories that illustrate how we are living apart, together. We are challenging ourselves to do something new: To create and produce virtually so that our cast and crew can stay healthy and safe.”
Netflix has currently shut down the vast majority of its productions due to COVID-19, but in the case of Social Distance, the remote working conditions are a feature, not a bug. The cast will film from home, Graham will run operations on production from home, and director Diego Velasco will direct from home.
The very idea of creating a show about living through COVID-19 while we’re in the middle of living through COVID-19 is enough to make many of us roll our eyes or turn away. But as we’ve seen through the evolution of late-night, transforming theaters, and all-out concerts, this would be a way to capture what is, at the very least, a very unique time in history.
“The experience of social distancing is currently universal, but no individual story is the same,” the producers added. “Through a broad spectrum of tales and moments, some seismic and some mundane, we hope to capture a moment in time. And we hope that Social Distance will help people feel closer to one another.”
H/T Variety
