HBO has begun developing a series based onTabloid: The Making of Ivanka Trump, the hit podcast from New York Magazine and Luminary Media, Collider has exclusively learned.
Tabloidwill be adapted as a fictionalized drama centered around Ivanka’s early years. The project is still in its early stages, but podcast hostVanessa Grigoriadisis expected to serve as an executive producer along with former HBO executiveNick Halland Australian playwrightNakkiah Lui. A representative for HBO had no comment.
Launched last August, the eight-episode series gives listeners a glimpse into the life of the First Daughter, tracing her history as a child of divorce to New York It Girl, all the way to the West Wing.Tabloidalso finds the well-sourced Grigoriadis wading into the Manhattan party scene of the ’80s, ’90s and early aughts to paint a unique picture of Ivanka and her privileged upbringing.
The podcast features interviews with Ivanka’s mother,Ivana Trump, as well as friends of the Trump family and other members of high society with insight into Ivanka’s relationships with her father,President Donald Trump, and her husband,Jared Kushner.
With a title likeTabloid, it should come as little surprise that the podcast comes off a bit gossipy, but Grigoriadis succeeds in showing how Ivanka became the woman she is today. Has her father’s political ambitions changed her, or is she the same person she has always been? And is she more likely destined to become the first female president, or wind up in jail one day?
Grigoriadis is a National Magazine Award–winning journalist who has traveled in some of the same social circles as Ivanka, who she has called “the ultimate tabloid piece of candy.” Grigoriadis also co-wrote the Rolling Stone feature “An American Drug Lord in Acapulco,” which is being developed for the big screen by Legendary andBrad Pitt’s company Plan B.
Hall was a longtime comedy executive at HBO before moving to Amazon Studios to become its head of comedy development. At HBO, Hall worked on such hit shows asCurb Your Enthusiasm,Looking,Enlightened,The ComebackandHow to Make It in America, whereas at Amazon, he was involved inThe RomanoffsandToo Old to Die Young. Hall is also credited as a producer onLuca Guadagnino’s upcoming HBO seriesWe Are Who We Are, and he’ll be an executive producer onNicolas Winding Refn’s series adaptation ofManiac Cop, which is also in the works at HBO.
Lui is an Australian actress, writer and comedian who’s best known for her work both in front of and behind the camera on the Aussie sketch seriesBlack Comedy, though she’s also an acclaimed playwright who has just begun making inroads in Hollywood. She’s repped by Independent Management Company and WME, the latter of which also reps Grigoriadis and Hall.
New York Magazine’sTabloidpodcast is expected to feature a new tabloid subject – and host – each season, with an eye toward how the media covered that person. To watch the teaser trailer for HBO’sWe Are Who We Are,click here.
