WGN America has ordered event series Ten Commandments from The Weinstein Company, Matt Cherniss, president and general manager of WGN America and Tribune Studios, announced Sunday as part of WGN's portion of the TCA winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.
The scripted series will feature 10 episodes each directed by a different filmmaker. The five directors already signed on include: Milk's Gus Van Sant, The Butler's Lee Daniels, In the Name of the Father's Jim Sheridan, Scream's Wes Craven and Juno actor Michael Cera.
Silver Linings Playbook producer Bruce Cohen and Weinstein Company cochairman Bob Weinstein have been tapped to produce the project.
“We are thrilled and honored to have filmmakers of this caliber as a part of this ambitious project, and thank Bruce Cohen and The Weinstein Company for bringing this diverse group of directors together,” said Cherniss in a statement. “The unique structure of the Ten Commandments project and the stature of directors involved reflects the creative and bold approach to quality programming that we aspire to as we move towards making WGN America a destination network."
Each director will be tasked with interpreting one of the 10 commandments during the series.
"Each of these directors is acclaimed for their own unique brand of style and genre, so it’s clear that we can expect ten wildly different episodes from this series," said Weinstein.
WGN also announced its scripted drama Salem will premiere April 20, 2014, and other scripted drama Manhattan will start production in March for a July 2014 premiere.
