EXCLUSIVE: Ori Elon, writer and co-creator of Shtisel, is currently working on a biographical mini-series about Austrian-Jewish journalist and playwright Theodor Herzl, who played a significant role in founding the modern state of Israel, Deadline has learned.
I’m hearing the series, which is at early stages, is said to be based on Herzl’s personal diaries and chronicles his journey from a cynical playwright to the leader of a nation. Elon is collaborating on the project with Adv. Inbar Nacht, who is financing the script for the show.
Herzl is a prominent figure in Jewish history and is considered the visionary of the state of Israel. Born in 1860 to middle class parents in what is now Budapest, Hungary, Herzl’s career was devoted to journalism and literature. He worked at a newspaper in Vienna before becoming a correspondent in Paris, where he attended the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a renowned political scandal and anti-Semitic event which saw a French-Jewish army captain falsely convicted as a spy for Germany.
The event made a Zionist out of Herzl and he believed then that Jews needed a nation to call their own. He founded and was the president of the Zionist Organization, a modern political movement to establish an independent Jewish state.
Elon is best known as the co-creator and writer of Netflix’s hit series Shtisel, which he co-wrote and co-created with Yehonatan Indursky. The series follows a Haredi family living in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem reckoning with love, loss and the doldrums of daily life. The Israeli series stars Michael Aloni, Doval’e Glickman, Neta Riskin, Sasson Gabai and Shira Haas.
Israeli drama is booming at the moment with shows such as Shtisel, Fauda, Unorthodox, Your Honor and On The Spectrum becoming global hits for international audiences. Elon’s Herzl project could become one of the next hot projects in the Israeli content sphere.
Elon is repped by The Kneller Agency.