Anderson Cooper is switching it up from broadcasting and taking a shot at a scripted TV series. Not just any TV series but one based on his family history. The CNN anchor will be an executive producer of “Vanderbilt,” a drama in development at Amazon’s Prime Video. Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death, The Girl From Plainville) is set to write, and executive produce, adapting Cooper and Katherine Howe’s 2021 book Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty. Universal Studio Group’s UCP, where Macmanus has an overall deal, and Amazon Studios are producing this series.
The project’s logline describes “Vanderbilt” as “an epic drama chronicling 400 years of the rise and fall of one of America’s most powerful dynasties. From the family’s humble beginnings in New Amsterdam, patriarch Cornelius ‘Commodore’ Vanderbilt weaponized cunning, cutthroat business tactics to amass unimaginable wealth, leading to power struggles between heirs over control, salacious scandals, and financial ruin. That is, until Gloria, the last of the Vanderbilts, rises above her family’s complicated history and personal tragedy to pave her own path as an artist and fashion designer.”Cooper has explored his mother’s and his family’s past on screen before, in the 2016 HBO documentary Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper. His and Howe’s book about the family’s checkered past was a bestseller and earned solid reviews. “Vanderbilt” will be Cooper’s first time producing a scripted show. Macmanus and Cooper will executive produce along with Kelly Funke of Macmanus’ Littleton Road Productions.
