A limited series about the Sandy Hook shooting and the ensuing eight-year legal battle between victims’ families and gun manufacturer Remington Arms has landed at Echo Lake Entertainment. Oscar nominee Robin Swicord (“When They See Us”) and Sarah Koskoff will create the show in consultation with several families directly affected by the tragedy and their attorneys.
Swicord, Koskoff and producer Mary Jane Skalski of Echo Lake Entertainment are teaming as executive producers to tell the story of the Sandy Hook case, which uncovered how a New York private equity firm purchased legacy American gun companies in the mid-2000s, effectively creating the equivalent of Big Pharma in the consumer arms industry. Swicord and Koskoff have followed the case closely and are consulting with several families who brought the lawsuit, as well as their attorney, Josh Koskoff (Sarah Koskoff’s brother).
According to the logline, the limited series tells the real-life David and Goliath story of nine Sandy Hook victims’ families who united behind a single goal: to do whatever they could to help prevent another Sandy Hook. To this end, they set out to hold Remington Arms accountable for manufacturing and marketing the AR-15 assault rifle used in the shooting. Josh Koskoff took the case, knowing nothing about guns or gun laws and despite dire warnings from the legal community that the case was doomed.
During the near decade-long battle for justice, the families grieved the loss of their loved ones and endured brutal harassment by Alex Jones (who has since been ordered to pay near $1 billion in damages and has declared bankruptcy as a result). Remaining unwavering in the pursuit, Koskoff and his colleagues ultimately discovered that a Wall Street investment firm took advantage of the expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban to unleash sales of a military weapon on the American public. The legal team built its case around the company’s predatory marketing tactics and product placement in first-person shooter games to aggressively court a young male demographic.
In February 2022, against all odds, the families won a landmark settlement for an unprecedented $73 million. The settlement also required Remington to release thousands of internal company documents, revealing the chilling details of what happened behind closed doors in the years leading up to the shooting.
“This is a series about accountability,” Swicord said in a statement. “As a society, we are used to seeing the largest corporations shield themselves from liability. But these Sandy Hook families found a lawyer who had as much fight in him as they had and who was undaunted by the roadblocks they faced. What Koskoff and the families found through research, discovery, and industry whistle-blowers revealed how Wall Street greed drives big business no matter the human cost.”
Swicord co-executive produced and wrote episodes of Ava DuVernay’s Emmy-nominated Netflix limited series “When They See Us.” Primarily known for her work as a screenwriter, Swicord’s credits include “Memoirs of a Geisha,” 1994’s “Little Women,” “Matilda,” cult comedy “Shag,” “The Perez Family” and “Practical Magic” with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. With Amy Pascal and Denise DiNovi, she produced Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-winning “Little Women.” In 2009, Swicord received an Academy Award nomination for her contribution to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a project Swicord originated and worked on for more than a decade.
Koskoff wrote the screenplay for “Hello I Must Be Going,” which was the Opening Night Film of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The National Board of Review honored the pic as one of the year’s 10 best independent films, and it won the Best Screenwriting in a Feature Film award at the Nantucket Film Festival. She’s currently developing Theodore Dreiser’s classic novel “Sister Carrie” as a limited series.
Skalski will executive produce for Echo Lake Entertainment, the company which is currently producing Hulu’s Emmy-winning “The Great,” starring Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult. Skalski has a long career in film, having produced over 25 feature films, including “The Station Agent,” “Mysterious Skin” and “American Animals.”
Echo Lake, which has financed and produced over 40 films and series, counts recent credits as “All the Bright Places” and “Oxygen” for Netflix, “Van Helsing” for Syfy and “The Secrets We Keep” from Bleecker Street. The Oscar-winning company also produced its first play, “Prima Facie,” starring Jodie Comer, which had a sold-out run on the West End in 2022. The play will premiere on Broadway in 2023.
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