NBC sends The Slap into production following format rights acquisition

22 January 2014


Following acquisition of format rights from DCD Rights in 2012, NBC have greenlit The Slap as an 8 episode drama series based on the Australian short-run series which aired on ABC1 in 2011. The adaptation will be written by Jon Robin Baitz, creator of Brothers & Sisters, and will be produced by Universal Television and Matchbox Pictures, which produced the original. Playwright/screenwriter Baitz and Matchbox’s Tony Ayres will executive produce the NBC adaptation with Universal TV-based Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald as well as Ted Gold.

The original series, The Slap, produced for ABC1 Australia, starring Jonathan LaPaglia, Melissa George and Hotel Rwanda‘s Sophie Okonedo met critical acclaim and won numerous international awards and nominations. It was an international sales success with acquisitions from DIRECTV, BBC Four (UK), AMC/Sundance Channel Global, Globosat, (Brazil), SVT (Sweden), NRK (Norway), YLE (Finland) and TVO (Canada).

Based on Christos Tsiolkas’ best selling novel, The Slap traces the shattering repercussions of a single event, a man slapping a child who is not his own, on a group of family and friends.