Fifth Season Takes Global On ‘The Westies’ TV Series From ‘Narcos’ Creator Chris Brancato
EXCLUSIVE: Fifth Season has taken global distribution rights to MGM+’s The Westies, the latest crime drama from Narcos creator Chris Brancato.
Fifth Season, which already distributes MGM+’s American Classic, will sell the show about Irish gangs in New York around the world. MGM+ has rights in the U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
Starring J.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney and Jessica Frances Duke, The Westies centers on New York City’s infamously violent Irish gang of the same name. The series is set in the early 1980s when the construction of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center on the Westies’ home turf in Hell’s Kitchen promises a financial windfall. Despite being outnumbered fifty-to-one by the Five Families of the Italian Mafia, the Westies have the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente.
Penned with his long-term writing partner Michael Panes, The Westies is Brancato’s third series for MGM+ following Godfather of Harlem and Hotel Cocaine. It was first revealed at Series Mania in 2024 as a Peaky Blinders-style series about Irish gangs.
Fifth Season also sells Kevin Kline-starrer American Classic, which follows a narcissistic Broadway star who returns to his hometown after a public meltdown and decides to save his family-run theater by directing and starring in a production.
Jennifer Ebell, EVP, Television Distribution at Fifth Season, said: “With The Westies, Chris Brancato and Michael Panes have created exactly the kind of premium crime series we know audiences and buyers respond to. It’s sharp, character-driven storytelling set against the gritty pulse of 1980s New York, with all the ambition and edge you want from a world like this. We’re confident the series will cut through and connect with viewers globally.”
The news comes with MGM+ and the BBC revealing they have partnered on John le Carré’s Legacy of Spies starring Matthew Macfadyen as George Smiley. The project is based on a series of novels featuring the career intelligence officer character. Macfadyen is joined by Charlie Hunnam, Daniel Brühl and Devrim Lingnau in the show from The Ink Factory and Amusement Park Film (All Quiet on the Western Front) in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios.
Ink Factory founders Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell called Legacy of Spies “the most ambitious and all-encompassing adaptation of le Carré’s work to date.”
