After a multiple-network bidding war, Netflix has picked up The OA, a top-secret drama starring Another Earth‘s Brit Marling, for eight hourlong episodes to premiere next year.
The project, the premise of which is being closely guarded, hails from Marling and her frequent collaborator Zal Batmanglij. The OA builds on their relationship after 2011’s Sound of My Voice and 2013’s The East, both of which the pair co-wrote, Batmanglij directed and Marling starred in. They’ll keep to those same capacities for this series.
Plan B’s Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are executive-producing the Netflix production alongside Michael Sugar (True Detective), Marling and Batmanglij. Said Cindy Holland, vice-president of original content at Netflix:
“We are thrilled to be the home of the first television series Brit and Zal create together. Whether in front of or behind the camera, or both, their creative voice is always uniquely captivating.”
Sound of My Voice was an absolutely ingenious psychological thriller, while The East was a mesmerizing and extremely tense political thriller, so expectations are high for The OA, despite a complete opacity as to what the series will be about. What does “OA” stand for? Open Access? On Air? Objective Area? Hopefully we can rule out an Order of the Arrow series looking at Scouting honor societies.
The OA joins a prestigious lineup of Netflix original series that includes anticipated drama Bloodline, Ellie Kemper comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, House of Cards, The Crown, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Orange is the New Black, Marco Polo, season four of Longmire, Sense8 and many, many more.
