Chuck Todd is branching out into scripted programming.
The Meet the Press host and NBC News political director will executive produce American Assassin, an anthology series about presidential assassinations and attempts that’s in development at Peacock. Adam Perlman (Billions, The Good Wife) will write and executive produce; Universal Studio Group’s UCP is producing.
American Assassin is described as a “two-hander true crime anthology” that dives into the singular minds of American presidents and the people who tried to knock them from their perch. The first season will tackle a lesser known killing: that of James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, by Charles J. Guiteau in 1881. Subsequent seasons would track different assassinations or attempts, including those of presidents Lincoln, McKinley and Kennedy.
Todd and Perlman will executive produce along with George Heller of Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
The project is the first foray into the scripted world for Todd, who has moderated Meet the Press since 2014 and was formerly NBC’s chief White House correspondent. He is repped by UTA.
Perlman is currently executive producing Lure, an Apple TV+ drama executive produced by and starring Robert Downey Jr. In addition to Showtime’s Billions and CBS’ The Good Wife, he has worked on HBO’s The Newsroom and is writing a feature script for Bag Man, based on a Rachel Maddow podcast of the same name, for Focus Features. He’s repped by Gersh, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Jackoway Austen.
Source: Hollywood
