Showtime orders ‘Billions’ pilot from New York Times columnist

Showtime has made its first pilot order of the new year, investing in the finance drama “Billions.”

The script is being written by New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and the creative duo Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

According to Showtime, the series is a (fictional) look at the “collision and, at times, collusion between an aggressive U.S. attorney in New York and some of the richest hedge fund billionaires in the country.

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It’s a world Sorkin knows rather well. At the New York Times, he founded the popular financial news blog DealBook, and he also wrote the bestseller “Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves,” chronicling the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath. That book was adapted into a film by HBO starring Paul Giamatti and William Hurt, on which Sorkin was a co-producer. CNBC viewers will also recognize him as the co-host of “Squawk Box.”

Levien and Koppelman have collaborated on a number of films together, writing “Rounders,” “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “The Girlfriend Experience.” They also wrote and directed the films “Knockaround Guys” and “Solitary Man.”

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