Originally posted on Deadline.com:
The Tiger Woods scripted mini-series based on Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyiann’s biography of the controversial golf champion, has moved a step closer to a hole in one after finding its writer and a production partner.
Rodney Barnes, who recently wrote on Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga and is penning HBO’s Untitled Lakers Project, will write the drama, while Entertainment 360, the joint venture between Management 360 and MRC Television, has teamed up with Wheelhouse Entertainment’s Spoke Studios to produce the project.
The project came after Wheelhouse Entertainment struck a partnership with Benedict, who co-wrote the book with Armen Keteyian, a former 60 Minutes correspondent.
The book, which was published in 2018 year, became a New York Times best seller and tells the story of one of the greatest career comebacks in sports history.
Published by CBS Corp-owned Simon & Schuster, the book opens with the 2009 car accident on the day after Thanskgiving that precipitated Woods’ infidelity scandal. The authors spoke to more than 250 people for the book, including other professional golfers and Woods’ longtime chiropractor Mark Lindsay.
Guymon Casady and Evan Silverberg will executive produce the new series for Entertainment 360, with Brent Montgomery and Joe Weinstock executive producing for Spoke Studios. Benedict and Keteyian also serve as executive producers.
Barnes (left), who is repped by Artists First and Fox Rothschild LLP, also has credits on Starz’ American Gods and Hulu and Marvel’s Runaways. Earlier this year, Barnes teamed up with Levantine Films, the film/TV production company behind the Gurinder Chada-directed Blinded By The Light, to adapt Killadelphia: Sins of the Father, the graphic novel that he wrote with Jason Shawn Alexander.
Eric Wattenberg, Wheelhouse Group Chief Creative Officer and President of Wheelhouse Entertainment, said, “The dream team of Entertainment 360 and writer Rodney Barnes combined with the powerful source material of the Tiger Woods biography, give this project the key elements to tackle the inspirational and complex life and career of one of the biggest names in the history of sports.”
