When Dean Devlin launched Electric entertainment back in 2000, he thought everything would be business as usual. And that business was making big-budget sci-fi adventure films like Stargate (1994) and Independence Day (1996). But, he says, “it became clear very early on that life would be different without the 500-pound gorilla of a big, giant, successful director like Roland Emmerich,” his partner at Centropolis Entertainment. “And I don’t think I quite expected it.”
But in 2004 the situation changed dramatically for the better. Devlin had a new agent, Brian Pike, then at CAA, who suggested he meet with Michael Wright, the new senior vice president of programming at CAA. TNTwhose goal was to create a cable channel brand in the so-called “smart popcorn space” with fun, uplifting and escapist fare.
“Michael said, ‘I’d really like to see a Dean Devlin-style movie on TNT,’” Devlin recalls. But he wasn't sure how the economics would work because the budget for a “Dean Devlin movie,” as most of his Centropolis projects were defined, was over $100 million. But it was supposed to be a regular cable movie. Wright said yes, but you can own it.
“My eyes widened and I asked, 'What do you mean?' Devlin recalls. “And he says, 'We'll pay you a licensing fee for a percentage of the show. You put up the rest of the money and you get all the worldwide rights, and you get the domestic rights back in four years and own it forever.” And I never even thought about anything like that before he said it. And I was very excited.”
Devlin just so happened to have a script that fit the bill: David N. Titcher's The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. It was an adventure comedy about a long-time graduate student named Flynn Carsen, who becomes embroiled in a globe-trotting adventure after becoming the custodian of a vast, top-secret archive of supernatural historical artifacts, including the Holy Grail and Pandora's Box.
“He started pitching it, and I loved it,” recalls Wright, who now heads MGM+. “It was the perfect combination of smart and well thought out—just wildly entertaining.”
Wright suggested the lead role Noah Wylethen known almost exclusively for his dramatic role as Dr. John Carter on the long-running NBC series ER.
“I said, 'Well, I've never been burned by a really good actor, but I have no idea if he has comedic chops,'” Devlin recalls. “And Noah came on set and just blew me away. Not only did he have great comedic chops, but he had such an encyclopedic memory and understanding of the history of comedy and different performances. The way he talked about how to do scenes blew me away, and it became very clear to me that he was more than just an actor. He approaches his acting like a filmmaker and ended up becoming my creative mind.” partner.”
The Electric-Wyle partnership will include two additional TV movies and a TV series.Librariansexecutive produced by Wyle, in which he reprized his role as Flynn for 10 episodes over four seasons (2014–2018), and also directed two episodes.
The Librarian franchise not only gave Electric a flagship series and an identity outside of the Emmerich/Centropolis orbit, but it also forced the company into a new business model that served it very well. Devlin says all future projects, with the exception of the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence and his 2017 directorial effort Geostorm, are owned by the company. There are seven series in total, from the crime drama Almost Heaven to SyFi shows The Outpost (2018-2021) and The Ark, which will debut its third season in 2026.
THE ARK – “Pretty Big Deal” Episode 206 – Pictured: (L) – (Photo: Alexander Letich/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY)
Alexander Letich/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY
Val Boreland, who is working with Electric on “The Ark” as president of NBCUniversal's Versant division, says one of the things she likes most about Devlin is his close connection to his projects. “It's not like he's 40 feet away in some office. His boots are on the ground. And what I appreciate most is his openness to collaboration and problem solving.”
One of the biggest things Devlin had to decide was how to move forward when the economy collapsed in 2008, ending the big deal he was pursuing just as TNT decided to pick up its second series, Leverage, to star. Timothy Hutton. He decided that they themselves would deficit finance the series.
“Every sane person I know has called me to try to talk me out of it, saying this is how companies go out of business,” Devlin says. “And they were right. It was a huge risk.”
Another key to Electric's independence is its 20,000-square-foot headquarters in West Hollywood, the former home of Elektra Records, which it has occupied since 2016. In addition to the executive brain trust and international sales and marketing teams, the building also houses editing and color grading rooms, a mixing stage, a writers' stage, a podcast studio and a fireproof vault that houses the masters for all of their shows, as well as a basement. an echo chamber left over from when Electra had her own recording studio.
Electric took even more control of its destiny in 2022, leveraging its content library to secure a $100 million line of credit from Bank of America.
“For us, it meant we didn't have to have every piece of the puzzle before we went out. [with a project] because we knew we could fill certain parts,” Devlin explains.
It also gives Devlin more freedom to act on his intuition.
“If Dean is excited about something, we're going to do it, and it makes it easier. You don't have to go to all these executive committees,” says Electric founding partner Rachel Olshan-Wilson. “For example, I have always loved horror, thrillers and dark [subjects]and I never in a million years thought Dean would star in a thriller like this [his 2017 feature directorial effort] “'Bad Samaritan,' but he read the script and loved it.”
Olshan-Wilson came into Devlin's orbit when Centropolis hired her as an assistant in 1997. Its founding partner, Mark Roskin, went even further, first working for him as a staff assistant at Stargate. Today, Roskin directs episodes of electric shows like Leverage: Redemption and The Librarians: The Next Chapter, which he also executive produces, and also works as a freelance director on non-electric shows like Chicago P.D.
“I enjoy seeing how other shows do things or how we could do them better,” Roskin says of his directing work on the side. Also: “I introduced [Devlin] some of these writers or technicians that I had met on other shows, and we brought them on board.”
Devlin has also been generous with outside directors, such as former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes, who credits the Electric executive with rescuing him from “director's prison” after the failure of his 2004 feature Thunderbirds by hiring him to direct a second TV movie, The Librarian, in 2006, and then dozens of episodes of Electric series, including “Leverage” and “The The”. Librarians.”
“He became something of a savior for me,” Frakes says. He also taught Frakes how to gamble during a break from filming the third film, The Librarian, in New Orleans. “He literally showed me how to play dice and win. It's a very interesting metaphor for Devlin.”
And despite Devlin's decades of experience and blockbuster success, he still takes advice and guidance from others.
“He just told me this year that working with [“Leverage” creator] John Rogers taught him a new way of looking at history,” says Sam Lynskey, longtime programming director at TNT and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Devlin has turned more to the emotional in recent projects, including the just-released big-screen drama One Happy Family, about a woman (played by his wife Lisa Brenner) whose life is turned upside down when DNA reveals that the father who raised her is not her biological parent, and Polyamorous Couple, a new half-hour comedy series about a polyamorous relationship.
Devlin also discovered the surprising emotional impact of the escapist dishes he produces when they hosted the first ElectricCon in New Orleans last year, celebrating the company's original programming. People would come up to him and tell him how going aboard the spaceship once a week with the Ark had helped them get through chemotherapy, or they couldn't have dealt with the death of their husband without a Robin Hood-style group of outlaws taking out the bad guys in the Leverage.
“I always enjoy making hot dogs. I love hot dogs,” Devlin muses. “But at an event like this, you realize that for most people, escapist entertainment is a really important part of the diet.”
