Award-Winning Production Company Synchronicity Films Partners With Erik Barmack’s Wild Sheep For ONE WORD KILL

Holly Phillips (“Get Even”, “Sugar Rush”) to adapt Mark Lawrence’s best-selling fantasy book trilogy for TV

Award-winning production company Synchronicity Films (“The Cry”, Only You) is co-producing a new YA scripted series One Word Kill with Erik Barmack’s Wild Sheep, the LA-based production company set up last year by the former Netflix VP of Original Series.

Acclaimed writer Holly Phillips is on board the project to adapt the trilogy of books of the same name, written by best-selling British-American fantasy writer Mark Lawrence, into a YA returnable series. The books have been billed as Ready Player One meets “Stranger Things”, with fantasy legend George R.R. Martin saying he “enjoyed the hell out of One Word Kill.”

One Word Kill begins when fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week. Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations, but when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next.

A strange – yet curiously familiar – man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia is in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help…now. He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of Physics. Challenge accepted.

Erik Barmack said “Claire and her team are experts at producing drama that is watched around the world. I couldn't be more thrilled to be partnering with her and Mark on this unique YA project.”

Claire Mundell added “Erik’s understanding of the global scripted marketplace is second to none, and we are genuinely thrilled to be working with him to bring Mark’s addictive book trilogy to the screen. This story has it all: fantasy, high stakes, romance – and Dungeons and Dragons. With her incredible track record of creating award-winning shows, Holly is the perfect writer to adapt these fantasy novels for a YA audience.”

Holly Phillips added “One Word Kill captures the joy and the messiness of being a teenager. It's about finding your tribe and the sacrifices you'll make for them once you've found them. I can't wait to bring it to life.”

Mark Lawrence is an American-British novelist who wrote The Broken Empire trilogy of fantasy books. In 2014, Lawrence won the David Gemmell Legend Awards for best novel for Emperor of Thorns. He operates the annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off.

Holly Phillips is best known for creating and showrunning teen series Get Even for BBC iPlayer and Netflix based on the novel by Gretchen McNeil. She also served as lead writer and creator of BAFTA and RTS-nominated series The Athena for Sky, currently airing on Amazon Prime in the US. Holly wrote and created the original series Nearly Famous for E4 and was on the writing team for BAFTA-nominated Sugar Rush. Other credits include Dance Academy 2 which won a LOGIE and an AWGIE, Millie Inbetween and Scandi Noir Trapped.

About Synchronicity Films
Synchronicity Films is an award-winning independent production company, founded and headed by Claire Mundell, headquartered in Glasgow and run with co-directors Mark Young (Chairman) and Adrian Burns (Operations Director), with an office in Melbourne led by Ruth Underwood. Synchronicity develops and produces feature films and television drama which showcases original voices and brings stories to life with energy, passion and dynamism. The company has a growing reputation for finding and developing quality IP. Notable current books Synchronicity is adapting include the Sunday Times / New York Times Bestseller ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’; Booker shortlisted ‘His Bloody Project’; Craig Russel’s popular ‘Lennox’ series of books; a Hanif Kureishi novella ‘The Body’ and several Helen FitzGerald novels.  Key credits include double BIFA winning ‘Only You’, BIFA winning ‘Weekend’, Karen Gillan’s BAFTA Film nominated ‘The Party’s Just Beginning’ and BAFTA winning series ‘The Cry’ which also received a Best Actress nomination at the International Emmys for Jenna Coleman.  Synchronicity is currently financing it’s next featire film – KILL – starring Ralph Inneson, Lorne MacDonald and Brian Vernel.

About Wildsheep Content
Erik Barmack has worked in television production, distribution and digital media development for over 25 years. Most recently he found Wild Sheep Content, a production and packaging company that has sold thirteen projects to seven global partners over its first year of operation.

Previously he has served in a variety of senior executive roles at Netflix, most recently as VP of Original Series, focussing on the production and distribution of international content, with oversight over multi-billion dollar budgets and large, international teams, which made shows such as The Witcher, Casa De Papel, Kingdom and Sacred Games.