September 21, 2022 9:35am
EXCLUSIVE: Future Shack Entertainment, the television production company recently launched by former USA Network and UCP head Jeff Wachtel, has landed rights to The Fight Of Our Lives, the memoir by Iuliia Mendel, former press secretary of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to develop as a limited series.
Ukrainian journalist Mendel joined President Zelenskyy’s administration as press secretary after his May 20, 2019 inauguration and held the post until July 9, 2021. Published Sept. 13, her memoir, The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World, is an inside account that tells the story of Zelenskyy’s improbable rise from popular comedian to president. She shares her accounts of key events from the two years prior to the 2022 Russian invasion, from meetings between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which she attended, to fielding press inquiries after the infamous phone calls between US President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Mendel also details life in Ukraine during the war, with her fiancé fighting on the front lines.
Wachtel, who serves as Future Shack Entertainment CEO, launched the company with a focus on developing and co-financing shows for global audiences. The company received a strategic investment from Endeavor Content-backed Blink49 Studios, which will handle production and distribution of all Future Shack’s projects in Canada, and has a first-look development deal with Roku focused on aspirational programming.
