JON HAMM TO REPRISE HIS ROLE FROM 'AMERICAN HOSTAGE' SCRIPTED PODCAST SERIES FOR TELEVISION; 'THE NIGHT AGENT' SHOWRUNNER SHAWN RYAN TO ADAPT

by Darian Scalamoni

    While many in the industry are mining for IP in the never-ending content landscape, it appears that the boom for adapting podcasts into scripted series are at an all-time high. The newest project being shopped for a series adaptation though might be the best one yet.

    According to an exclusive from THR, Jon Hamm is set to reprise his role from the podcast, American Hostage for a scripted series from The Night Agent creator Shawn Ryan. The narrative audio series is amongst one of the most popular for scripted podcasts in the entire landscape. Sony Pictures Television is currently shopping the series in which Hamm will return to his role as Fred Heckman, a beloved Indianapolis radio reporter who is put in a life-or-death situation when a criminal named Tony Kiritsis demands to be interviewed on Heckman's popular program. It sounds like this could be the next great role across television or streaming for Hamm who is an Emmy-winner for his fantastic lead role as Don Draper on AMC's Mad Men.

    The scripts were written by Ryan and Eileen Myers, who previously teamed on Amazon series Mad Dogs, and finished prior to the WGA-strike, however, Ryan wanted to wait until after both strikes to start shopping the series to streamers and TV networks. He is said to envision American Hostage as a potential anthology show depending on its success and impending series pickup, in which every season, Heckman would have a new hostage case every season. Ryan also says in THR's report that he envisions the show to be a prestige series that can be made under a manageable budget, with limited characters and locations.

    Hamm has been busy as of late, recently appearing in Season 3 of AppleTV+ drama The Morning Show as Paul Marks. He'll also appear in the new musical adaptation of Mean Girls due out in January. Before then, however, Hamm will play one of the leads in the fifth installment of Noah Hawley's FX anthology, Fargo, based loosely on the Coen brothers 1996 film of the same name.

    Ryan has reached his highest level of success thus far with recent Netflix action hit, The Night Agent, led by Gabriel Basso and Luciane Buchanon. Ryan also was the showrunner on the massively influential FX series, The Shield in the 2000s, while he still acts as showrunner on CBS drama, S.W.A.T as well.

    Are you guys excited for American Hostage? Who would you like to see go head-to-head with Hamm's character and play Tony Kiritsis? Which network/streamer do you hope the series gets picked up by? Let us know in the comments!