‘Silicon Valley’ Creators Developing Match.com Origin Series at TBS (EXCLUSIVE)

Will Thorne

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“Silicon Valley” co-creators John Altschuler and David Krinsky are poised to tackle another tech-related subject.

The duo’s adaptation of the novel “The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet’s Rise” about the origins of the dating website Match.com has received a pilot script order at TBS, Variety has learned exclusively.

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The project has original author David Kushner attached as an executive producer and hails from The Gotham Group, where Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, Jeremy Bell and DJ Goldberg are all on board as EPs.

“The Players Ball,” published in April, 2019 by Simon & Schuster, tells the story of the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for the control of love and sex on the internet.

In 1994, entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream. However, Kremen was surprised to find his plan was being scuppered when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus began Kremen and Cohen’s decade-long battle for control.

Altschuler and Krinsky’s HBO series, which they co-created with Mike Judge, is set to come to an end after a shortened sixth season. The duo are also known for their work on the Fox animated comedy “King of the Hill.” They are repped by 3 Arts and Morris Yorn. Kushner is represented by the law firm of Hirsch Wallerstein and literary agent David McCormick of the McCormick Literary Agency.

The Gotham Group is currently in pre-production on its “Masters of Doom” pilot at USA (which is also based on a Kushner novel) and recently scored a script commitment plus penalty for its Sterling K. Brown-produced “Washington Black” series at Hulu.

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