Dan Perrault (Left) and Tony Yacenda (Right)
(Courtesy of Eric Charbonneau)
“American Vandal” creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault have landed a series order at Paramount Plus for an eSports mockumentary series called “Players,” Variety has learned.
“Players” follows a fictional pro “League of Legends” team as they pursue their first championship after years of close calls and heartache. To win it all, they will need their prodigy, a 17-year-old rookie, and their 27-year-old veteran to put their egos aside and work together.
Yacenda and Perrault created “Players” and will also serve as executive producers, with Yacenda also attached to direct. Funny Or Die’s Joe Farrell and Mike Farah serve as executive producers alongside Tim McAuliffe, Riot Games, 3Arts’ Ari Lubet and Brillstein Entertainment Partners’ Todd Sellers. CBS Studios will produce in association with Funny or Die.
Perrault and Yacenda are no strangers to the mockumentary format, as they proved with “American Vandal.” The first season of the Netflix series perfectly parodied the true crime genre as a pair of high school filmmakers investigate whether or not one of their classmates is really guilty of spray painting over two dozen faculty cars with images of penises. In Season 2, the pair investigate when someone taints the lemonade in a high school cafeteria with laxatives. The show won a Peabody Award for its first season and was also nominated for an Emmy for best writing for a comedy series.
The duo have also proven themselves adept at parodying the sports world, having previously collaborated on projects like a parody of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series about the events of “Rocky IV” and “Angels in the Outfield” for CollegeHumor.
Yacenda is repped by UTA and 3 Arts Entertainment. Perrault is repped by UTA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Riot Games’ “League of Legends” is the most-played PC game in the world and generates billions of hours of gameplay per year. The game is also the basis for the largest eSport on the planet, with the 2020 “League of Legends” World Championship Finals generating a record-breaking 23.04 million average minute audience.
Variety's Joe Otterson contributed to this post.
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/american-vandal-esports-mockumentary-series-paramount-plus-1235050631/#recipient_hashed=27d3e1decbdd57f8473998652dd3259302a49d011cd4c3c98101f80952412574
