HBO Lands Bardem-Starrer The Spread After Bidding War

HBO won a heated bidding war to greenlight The Spread, a Miami-set drama headlined by Javier Bardem and written by Ozark co-creator Bill Dubuque and Sean Sansiveri; Matthew Vaughn will direct, with HBO co-producing alongside Fifth Season and partners Makeready and Topic Studios. Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+ and Apple TV were among strong bidders, with straight-to-series orders on the table; HBO ultimately ordered the series, with the potential for a two-season pickup as talks continued.