The Jason Bourne franchise has now expanded to television as USA Network has given a straight-to-series order for Treadstone, a spin-off series about the shadowy CIA program that Jason Bourne worked for as a covert spy and assassin. The series comes from Heroes creator Tim Kring and Universal.
Written by Kring, Treadstone explores the origin story and present-day actions of a CIA black ops program known as Operation Treadstone — a covert program that uses behavior-modification protocol to turn recruits into nearly superhuman assassins. The first season follows sleeper agents across the globe as they’re mysteriously “awakened” to resume their deadly missions.
Treadstone had originally been given a pilot order earlier this year, but USA Network decided to give it a straight-to-series order after UPC began to negotiate a deal with Amazon Studios for international distribution for the spin-off. Production on the series is expected to begin in 2019.
“As the No. 1 cable entertainment network for the past 12 years, USA Network is delivering a dynamic lineup of big, bold programming – and what could be bigger and bolder than the Treadstone mythology?,” said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.
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Kring will executive produce with Ramin Bahrani, who will also direct the pilot. Ben Smith and Jeffrey Weiner of Captivate will executive producer alongside Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas. Justin Levy (Beyond) will also executive produce.
