Eleventh Hour Films has taken the rights to Hunting Ghislaine, a podcast on the disappearance of Jeffrey Epstein’s close associate Ghislaine Maxwell, with a view to turning it into a limited TV series.
The six-part podcast was made by LBC after it was commissioned by the UK radio station’s parent company Global and The Story Lab, which is part of advertising group Dentsu. It was presented by former BBC journalist John Sweeney.
Hunting Ghislaine tells the story of Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced billionaire media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who allegedly helped aid and abet Epstein’s series of sex crimes.
Maxwell vanished when Epstein’s life began to unravel, but she reappeared when arrested by the FBI last year. She denies six charges of enticing girls for sex with Epstein and perjury.
Paula Cuddy, Eve Gutierrez, and Jill Green will executive produce for Sony-backed Eleventh Hour alongside Chris Baughen for Global and Robbie Ashcroft for The Story Lab. Sweeney will act as series consultant and executive producer.
Cuddy, Eleventh Hour’s creative director, said: “John’s compelling podcast Hunting Ghislaine puts Ghislaine Maxwell centre stage, unravels her story and asks what went wrong for the girl who seemingly had it all. Set in a richly glittering international world, dark secrets are revealed and always in the shadows looms the formative relationship between a daughter and her father. It has all the hallmarks of a premium drama.”
