Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak is taking on another show with a budding spy — this one in middle school. Disney+ is developing Spy School, a drama based on Stuart Gibbs‘ bestselling book series, from Fedak, Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort, producer Emma Watts and 20th Television.
Written by Fedak, Spy School revolves around Ben Ripley, who may only be a teenager, but he’s already pegged his dream job: CIA or bust. Ben is not surprised when he is recruited for a magnet school with a focus on science — but he’s entirely shocked to discover that the school is a front for a CIA academy.
Fedak executive produces with Watts, Maximum Effort and Gibbs. 20th Television is the studio.
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Fedak is best known for co-creating and showrunning the hit NBC series Chuck. He also served as co-creator, executive producer and showrunner of Fox’s Prodigal Son, and he created and ran the ABC series Deception. On the film side, he penned the screenplay for Michael Bay’s film Ambulance, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. He’s repped by WME and Michael Schenkman at GGSSC.
Gibbs is the New York Times bestselling author of five middle-grade series: Spy School, Funjungle, Charlie Thoren, Moon Base Alpha and Once Upon a Tim, as well as the graphic novel series Bruce Wayne: Not Super for DC Comics. His books have sold more than 12 million copies. He also wrote the screenplays for See Spot Run, Repli-Kate and Showdown, and has worked on several animated studio features. His first nonfiction book, Spy School Secret Files: Totally True Tales From World War II, will publish this fall. Gibbs is repped by CAA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead.
Currently an independent producer, Watts served as President of the Motion Picture Group at Paramount Pictures and as President of Production and Vice Chairman at Twentieth Century Fox, where she helped establish and steward major franchises including Deadpool, Night at the Museum, Maze Runner, Kingsman, X-Men, Planet of the Apes, and James Cameron’s Avatar films. This is her latest collaboration with Reynolds since Deadpool, which she championed.
