Ridley Scott's TV Adaptation Of Barack Obama-Approved Bestselling Novel Gets New Update From Producer After 4 Years

Published Jul 11, 2026, 11:43 AM EDT

Scott Free Productions announced back in 2022 that it was partnering with Tomorrow Studios for a TV version of Jonathan Franzen’s Obama-approved novel Freedom, with Melanie Marnich (The Affair) tapped to write. Four years later, there has been little further news about the would-be series, but it seems the Ridley Scott-produced project has not been entirely abandoned.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Ben Gibbons for 2026's Italian Global Series, producer and Scott Free CCO David W. Zucker indicated that, despite the less-than-encouraging lack of updates, Freedom has not yet reached the scrap heap. “So, I think it's always that next book that you read, or the next meeting that you have, and it's what you don't expect to come through the door,” Zucker said when asked about future projects. “There are definitely some that I'd love to see brought to life. We developed Jonathan Franzen's Freedom novel, which I think is extraordinary, and I hope that will come to fruition someday.”

He added, “There are some historical dramas that I really adore, but it's exciting. It's almost like going to a restaurant, when a chef serves, and you're like, ‘Oh my god, I didn't even know I'd like that.’ That's what I find makes going to work each day so, so fun.”

2022’s Freedom announcement from Scott Free revealed the show’s logline, focusing on the book’s two protagonists, Patty and Walter Berglund, a St. Paul, Minnesota couple with a hands-on parenting approach who see their world upended in pointedly satirical fashion. “In the new millennium, they question why their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door, why has Walter, once an environmental lawyer, taken a job working with Big Coal; and why has their perfect neighbor turned into the local Fury."

The logline continues, “Patty and Walter are indelible characters, and their mistakes and joys, as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, have become touchstones of contemporary American reality.” Former president Obama could be counted as a fan of the bewildered couple’s exploits after he was seen purchasing a copy of Freedom during a 2010 Martha’s Vineyard vacation. Ditto Alien director Scott, who in a 2022 statement called the award-winning book, “a laugh-out-loud, emotional knock-out of a novel.”

Known for producing the hit show The Good Wife, Scott Free CCO Zucker executive produced 2025’s Alien: Earth as well as the upcoming Blade Runner 2099.

Birthdate November 30, 1937

Birthplace South Shields, County Durham, England

Height 5 feet 8 inches

Professions Film Director, Producer