Shonda Rhimes Nabs Netflix Show Anna Delvey

Shonda Rhimes made a move last year that signaled a major transition when she signed an overall deal with Netflix, which would make the streaming giant into the home of future “Shondaland” projects. Now, nearly a year after the ink dried, the television visionary has selected her first project as part of said deal, adapting a recent New York Magazine article, by Jessica Pressler, titled, “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People.”

Rhimes has acquired the rights to the Anna Delvey article, and has taken up the duty of writing the Netflix television adaptation, reports Variety. The article depicts the factual exploits of a young woman who pulled the wool over the eyes of New York’s high society by passing herself off as a German heiress. Throughout the scheme, Delvey fully embraced the one-percenter lifestyle, managing to fund her newfound capriciously avaricious existence by conning key marks and financial institutions. Of course, the fact that we know these details kind of spoils (out of necessity,) the fact that Delvey was eventually caught and is currently incarcerated in New York’s Rikers Island prison without bond.  

Yet, the premise should make for a uniquely picaresque project for the streaming giant, bolstered by scripts by Rhimes, who will use Anna Delvey to christen the Netflix deal after a 15-year run with ABC for smash shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal, the recent Station 19 and the currently-running For the People, amongst many others. Interestingly enough, Rhimes might just follow up Anna Delvey with another article-based project, since she also recently showed interested in adapting a Vanity Fair piece by Rachel DeLoache Williams; a project in which top-tier starlets like Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie have reportedly expressed interest.

Regardless, the Anna Delvey project will also provide a prospectively promising role as a caste-crashing anti-hero for one lucky female lead, presumably one in her twenties.

We’ll keep you updated on Shonda Rhimes’s Anna Delvey Netflix project as the news arrives.