Nicole Kassell, the Emmy-winning Watchmen director, has inked a deal to become the lead director on HBO and Sky’s dark horror comedy The Baby, which is housed at Chernobyl producer Sister.
Kassell will also serve as an executive producer on the series, which marks a debut for screenwriter Siân Robins-Grace, who is the co-executive producer on Charlie Covell’s upcoming Netflix series Kaos and helped developed Sex Education for the streamer. Lucy Gaymer is the co-creator and her company Proverbial Pictures co-produces.
Sister has assembled an all-female writers room to support Robins-Grace. It will feature Sophie Goodhart (Sex Education), Kara Smith (Kaos), Anchuli Felicia King (White Pearl), and Susan Stanton (Succession). Bisha K. Ali (Ms.Marvel) will act as a consultant.
The Baby is a raw examination of motherhood as an institution: a set of unspoken rules that affect women differently depending on how they’re viewed by society. When 38-year-old Natasha is unexpectedly landed with a baby, her life of doing what she wants, when she wants, dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative, and with violent powers, the baby twists Natasha’s life into a horror show.
Kassell said: “I read Sian’s brilliant script early in lockdown, and it cut straight through the noise and anxiety of our times, to take me on a wild, zany ride with wonderfully complex women grappling with the toughest of decisions any of us are lucky enough to make – to have or not have a child.”
The eight-part series is executive produced by Jane Featherstone, Carolyn Strauss, Naomi de Pear, Katie Carpenter, Robins-Grace, and Kassell. Gaymer will produce. It will shoot next year.