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Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, a 1.45 million square foot studio facility on the west side of downtown Chicago with additional studios in development at 31st and Kedzie, has inked an agreement with Amazon Studios to begin production of nine episodes of the American adaption of Utopia.

Production of the eagerly anticipated series will be conducted at the main Cinespace campus in the North Lawndale neighborhood this year.

“We’re very excited to welcome Amazon Studios to Cinespace and be a part of their footprint in Chicago,” said Alex Pissios, president of Cinespace Chicago Film Studios. “This new series is another opportunity for us to bring Hollywood to Chicago and also more jobs to the city,” he added.

In Utopia, a group of young adults who meet online are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical, cult-underground graphic novel. They discover that the conspiracy theories in the comic’s pages may actually be real and are forced into the dangerous, unique and ironic position of saving the world.

Also read, A Day in the Life of Cinespace.

Amazon has ordered nine episodes for the first season. The original series aired two six-episode seasons on Britain’s Channel 4 between 2013 and 2014. The adaption is a co-production between Endemol Shine North America/Kudos and Amazon Studios. The series was developed by Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of Gone Girl, Dark Places and Sharp Objects (all of which have been adapted for film or television) and will be directed by Tom Haynes from Doctor Who.



About Cinespace

Cinespace is a family-owned company specializing in the development, management and operation of studio space and support facilities for the film, television, and digital media production industry. With 31 sound stages on its main campus located in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood and additional studios currently under construction at 31st and Kedzie, Cinespace is one of the largest film studio in the country. Since opening in 2011, Cinespace has generated more than 16,000 new jobs, including several that started out as internships offered by the CineCares Foundation, a community-based internship program partnership with Wolf Films, NBCUniversal, FOX, and Studio Mechanics Union Local 476 last year. Besides film production, the campus is home to a number of related businesses including AbelCine, Cinelease, Keslow Camera, and Periscope Post & Audio.



Send your film updates to Reel Chicago Editor Dan Patton, dan@reelchicago.com.