Netflix sets sights on a You successor with Anna O series from Greg Berlanti

Warner Bros. and Berlanti Productions have secured the rights to Matthew Blake's debut crime thriller novel Anna O and are believed to be developing the series for Netflix, according to a new report from Deadline. Anna O was officially published this past January.

It sounds like the rights to Anna O created quite a competitive bidding situation. Deadline says that upon its debut in 2022, Blake's book acquired "three separate seven-figure deals alongside record-breaking auctions and pre-empts in a total of 40 territories."

Mega-producer Greg Berlanti has been working with both Netflix and Warner Bros. steadily for more than a decade now, and it sounds like this new series would be crafted as a potential successor to Berlanti's other Netflix project You, which just went into production on its fifth and final season.

At present, Blake is attached to executive produce alongside Berlanti Productions, Berlanti himself, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh Redman. Schechter and Berlanti both serve as executive producers on You.

What is Anna O about?

Human beings spend more than 30 years of their lives asleep, and yet there is still so much we don't know about the actual process of sleep. Blake, a former political writer, became intrigued by the subject of sleep-related crimes, specifically pertaining to something known as the "resignation sydrome," a rare psychosomatic disorder in which a person falls into a sleep-like state and cannot seem to wake up.

At the center of Blake's novel, Anna O, is 25-year-old Anna Ogilvy who murders two people one night, seemingly out of nowhere, and then immediately falls asleep and has yet to wake up since. The case causes a media frenzy that investigators have been trying to solve for years.

At the forefront of the research team is Dr. Benedict Price, who must ascertain whether Anna can stand trial for her crimes or if she can even be held accountable for them at all. But he must act fast because Anna is showing signs of stirring and Dr. Price has secrets of his own he doesn't want coming to light.

You can learn more about the novel Anna O here. The novel is available to purchase wherever books are sold near you or via online retailers.

Berlanti Productions is also behind the upcoming DC television series Dead Boy Detectives, which premieres April 25, 2024 on Netflix. Stay tuned to Netflix Life for more information on both shows!