Peacock has given a straight-to-series order to 1970s espionage thriller PONIES, starring and executive produced by Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones). The project, co-created, co-written and executive produced by Susanna Fogel (The Flight Attendant) and David Iserson (Mr. Robot) and exec produced by Jessica Rhoades (Black Mirror), previously had a cast-contingent blinking green light, which Clarke’s casting turned into a firm order.
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Set in Moscow in 1977, the series follows two “PONIES” (“persons of no interest” in intelligence speak) who work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila, is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place.
Fogel is set to direct, while Iserson will serve as showrunner. The two executive produce PONIES with Rhoades via her Pacesetter Productions, with the company’s EVP Alison Mo Massey serving as co-executive producer alongside Katherine Bridle. The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
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Best known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s Game Of Thrones, which earned her four Emmy nominations, Clarke is in production on the Amazon limited series Criminal, also starring Charlie Hunnam and Adria Arjona. She was last seen starring in the Sundance award-winning film The Pod Generation opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor, and in Marvel’s limited series Secret Invasion opposite Samuel L. Jackson. She is repped by CAA, UK’s Hamilton Hodell, Range and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.