Anonymous Content’s new CEO Darren Walker said the management and production company is developing a feature film on iconic writer James Baldwin that it will produce with the Obamas’ Higher Ground.

It’s commissioned Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James and his partner, James Baldwin scholar Nicholas Boggs, to write a script based on Boggs’ best-selling biography Baldwin: A Love Story, Walker said at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in LA, appearing with Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, Anonymous Content’s majority owner.

Walker was tapped as chief executive early this year. He was formerly the president of the Ford Foundation, leading its $17 billion endowment.

“Our balance sheet will be increased. Will have an envelope to do [more] … We can, because what happens when you have a long-term investor? You can be courageous if you have conviction and you have an investor who is aligned with that,” he said. The idea is to move away from the “fee-for-hire” production model. “Now Emerson has made it possible for us to become a financier in the market, so we’ll be able to co-finance, finance, take the lead in financing a film. So it won’t be like it has been, where our production team gets a great script and they say we’ve got to go out and find someone to finance this.”

Jobs, also a major investor in The Atlantic, said Anonymous Content founder Steve Golin had “a beautiful vision” but that people grieved and “entropy set in a bit” after he passed away seven years ago, followed by tough times in the industry with Covid, then Hollywood strikes. But the company is attached to several dozen festival films this season, Emmy wins, and, under television head David Levine, co-produced Zoe Kazan’s upcoming Netflix series East Of Eden as Walker said the independent builds up to “version 3.0”

Jobs, along with former HBO chief Richard Plepler, are joining a reconstituted board under chairman Michael Klein, Walker said. Steve Shikya was named COO in August following the hires of Liza Burnett Fefferman as chief communications and marketing officer and Michael Sinclair as chief legal officer.

Asked about the unconventional choice of Walker to run the company, Jobs said: “People were asking that at the beginning, and within a few months, everyone was saying what a brilliant stroke of genius it was, because he’s electrified Anonymous Content and also created quite buzz across the industry.”

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For the first time in over a month, there’s a new streaming title atop the Samba Weekly Wrap Report Top 10.

“Monster,” the Netflix anthology series that offers fictionalized biographical accounts of famous murderers’ upbringings, hacks its way into the top spot after debuting in second place last week. The current season, “The Lizzie Borden Story,” focuses on the young woman in 1890s Massachusetts who allegedly murdered her parents with an ax. It’s perfect timing for Netflix as viewers start planning their Halloween costumes.

Hanging on to second place this week is “Neagley” on Amazon Prime Video. The show, which follows a private investigator who uncovers a conspiracy, is a spinoff from Amazon’s hit series “Reacher.” Astute Weekly Wrap Report readers will know that “Reacher” held the top spot on our chart for six consecutive weeks before vacating the top spot this week.

But don’t write off “Reacher,” as the detective series sticks around in ninth place despite ending its fourth season the previous week. The entire first season of “Neagley” was added to Amazon’s library on Sept. 16, meaning that both shows’ chart positions are due to sustained viewership, without the aid of new episodes. Clearly, Amazon has found a winning formula in its extended “Reacher” universe.

The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most-watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television, sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba’s panel of more than 3 million households, balanced to the U.S. Census.

Netflix takes third place this week, again with a scripted biographical look at a famous killer. This time it’s “Unabomber,” which tells the story of the terrorist mail bomber Ted Kaczynski. A star cast with Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis and Shailene Woodley likely added to the film’s appeal.

“Special Ops: Lioness” lands in fourth place this week as the spy thriller ended its third season. Despite being one of the biggest Paramount+ hits to date, the show has not yet been renewed for a fourth season.

“The Love Hypothesis,” a new romcom on Amazon, debuts in fifth this week. The film is a modern twist on the Shakespearean “enemies to lovers” premise, set in a university research lab. Interesting fact: the film is an adaptation of a popular romance novel, which itself started out as Star Wars fanfiction.

We have another Netflix chart debut in sixth with “A Different World.” The sitcom is a sequel to the 1980s series of the same name (itself a spinoff of “The Cosby Show”). Similar to the source material, the sequel follows the stories of students arriving at a prestigious HBCU.

In seventh is Paramount+’s “Mobland,” as the star-filled gangster series moves up one slot in its second week on the chart.

“Wonka’s the Golden Ticket,” a reality competition based on the Roald Dahl book and hit films, is in eighth this week. The new Netflix series finds contestants looking to win a huge cash prize by competing in challenges on a set that replicates the famous Wonka chocolate factory, complete with a chocolate river.

Sliding down to 10th this week is “Lanterns.” The HBO Max superhero drama had a strong start near the top of the chart, but hits its lowest point now, following its penultimate episode.

Meanwhile, the megapopular singing competition “The Voice” returned to NBC for its 30th season with three episodes that all make the chart this week, the highest placing second.

That pushes the once-again culturally relevant new season of “Dancing With the Stars” down a spot this week, to third. 

All of this action at the top of the chart is unfortunate news for “America’s Got Talent,” which dominated a desolate linear chart throughout the summer. The competition’s 21st season concluded with a two-part finale this week, landing in fourth and eighth place.

The 28th season of “Big Brother” has winnowed down to its final three contestants, putting it in fifth place this week. Meanwhile, “Saturday Night Live” returned for its 52nd season on NBC, hosted by the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a linear chart without “Wheel of Fortune.” The classic game show closes us out this week in 10th place.