EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Working Title Television has landed the rights to develop and produce a television series about iconic American artist Keith Haring based on Brad Gooch’s biography Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring. All of Us Strangers filmmaker Andrew Haigh is attached to write the adaptation and direct.
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Katy Rozelle will executive produce for Working Title Television, which is part of Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group. Haigh, Gooch and The Keith Haring Foundation also executive produce.
Haring, a street-artist-turned-AIDS-activist who died of AIDS-related complications at the age of 31, was a pioneer of the pop art movement and a cultural icon of New York City’s graffiti subculture of the 1980s.
“Haring’s work, while profoundly personal, speaks to something deep in us all,” Haigh said. “His bold line defined a moment in time, yet his art resonates as powerfully today as it did in the 1980s.”
Haigh went on to reference two of Haring’s most famous works, Radiant and Party of Life.
“Radiant is a joyful call to action, a celebration of life even in the midst of adversity and struggle,” Haigh said. “Keith’s story pulses with the unshakable belief that art can change the world. I can’t wait to join his Party of Life.”
Established by Haring in 1989, shortly before his death, The Keith Haring Foundation carries on his artistic and philanthropic legacy through the preservation and circulation of his artwork and archives, and by providing grants to non-profit organizations that assist children and persons affected by HIV/AIDS.
“We are honored to partner with the Keith Haring Foundation, Brad Gooch and Andrew Haigh to bring the brilliant story of Keith’s life to the screen,” Bevan said.
Haigh’s film All of Us Strangers for Searchlight Pictures received six BAFTA nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Haigh, as well as four Gotham and three Independent Spirit Award nominations. Haigh’s previous features include A24’s Lean on Pete (2017) and IFC’s Sundance Selects’ 45 Years (2015) for which Charlotte Rampling earned an Oscar nomination. In TV, Haigh served as an executive producer and lead writer-director on HBO’s Looking (2014-2016) starring Jonathan Groff and Murray Bartlett. He is currently adapting to direct the Walter Isaacson book Leonardo Da Vinci for Universal.
Gooch is known for the biographies City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara and Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor.
Working Title Television is behind Nida Manzoor’s Peabody and BAFTA award-winning series We Are Lady Parts, as well as Lena Dunham’s new Netflix comedy Too Much.
UTA brokered the deal on behalf of Gooch and The Keith Haring Foundation. Haigh is repped by CAA, The Agency (London) Ltd and Anonymous Content. Gooch is repped by UTA and Joy Harris Literary. The Haring Foundation is additionally repped by The Wylie Agency and Stout Thomas & Johnson.
