NBC orders Oliver Sacks-inspired drama ‘Wolf’ to pilot

Greg Berlanti

NBC has ordered a pilot for Wolf, a new one-hour drama based on the life and works of famed British neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, from Andy Serkis and Greg Berlanti.

Written by Michael Grassi and directed by Lee Toland Krieger, the show is inspired by Sacks’ books The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars.

Wolf will follow the story of larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier, the human mind, while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.

Grassi and Krieger will exec produce alongside Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman for Berlanti Productions; Henrik Bastin and Melissa Aouate for Fabel Entertainment; and Jonathan Cavendish, Serkis and Will Tennant for The Imaginarium.

The series has been in development since 2018, first with Serkis and Fabrik Entertainment and then with Fabel when Bastin left to form the firm in 2021.

Berlanti Productions, Grassi and Krieger are all under overall deals at the studio Warner Bros. Television.

Sacks, who passed away in 2015, also wrote the book Awakenings, which was adapted into the Oscar-nominated 1990 feature starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

NBC previously set out to develop a drama based around Sacks’ life in 2013, but the project did not come to fruition.