Alejandro G. Iñárritu TV Series: ‘Birdman’ Director’s Drama ‘The One Percent’ Has Been Picked Up By Starz

Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu is getting ready to jump on the small screen with a series about unfair wealth distribution called “One Percent.” The director reunited with his “Birdman” team to write the first episodes, “The four of us, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo and I, actually did reunite to write a TV series called “One Percent” for Starz network, not HBO… We’ve already written two episodes and we’ll continue to write the rest throughout the year,” said Iñárritu on a phone interview, while filming his upcoming film “The Revenant” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, on location in Canada.

The “Birdman” director (nominated for 9 Academy Awards) says he expects the series to be completed by next year. “It’s a very interesting project. I really like the first two screenplays for the episodes and I trust I’ll be directing both in a new experience for me. I don’t watch a lot of TV but I’m seduced by the idea of expanding to other areas of entertainment directing characters throughout a series,” he continued.

When asked about what the show is about, González Iñárritu said the show will center around a family of organic farmers to shed light on the economical and social disparity there is in the world, “How is it possible that 85 people have more wealth than 3 billion people in the world? That disparity and the conflicts caused by the 99 percent trying to become part of the 1 percent are very interesting to me. The reality of the situation is unconceivable.”

This project certainly follows the growing trend of hiring prestigious filmmakers for TV series, as it is becoming customary for networks like HBO who’ve landed big names like Martin Scorsese who directed the “Boardwalk Empire” pilot; Peter Berg who lent a hand for “The Leftovers” and Steven Soderbergh for “The Knick.”