Channing Tatum To Develop a TV Series about Bipolar Disorder Called GORILLA AND THE BIRD
Channing Tatum is set to develop a TV series that will focus on bipolar disorder. The series is based on the memoir written by Zach McDermott called Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother’s Love.
McDermott was a 26-year-old public defender living in Brooklyn when one day he woke up with some major mental issues. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and the series will tell the story of his struggles with the disorder and his road to trying to live a normal life.
Gorilla and the Bird is sure to be a powerful series. I don't know if you know anyone with bipolar disorder, but if you do you know how hard and difficult it can be. It affects nearly 6 million Americans.
Here is the full description of the story:
Zack McDermott, a 26-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed, Truman Show-style, as part of an audition for a TV pilot. This was it - his big dreams were finally coming true. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from "The Producer" to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to Bellevue Hospital.
So begins the story of Zack's freefall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often darkly funny struggle to claw his way back to sanity, regain his identity, and rebuild some semblance of a stable life. It's a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack's dark world.
Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy Seal and his talking stuffed monkey, and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird's help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a woman who can love him back, bipolar and all.
Written with raw emotional power, humor, and tenderness, GORILLA AND THE BIRD is a bravely honest account of a young man's unraveling and the relationship that saves him.
This is one of those stories that I'm glad is being told and I think it's cool that Tatum is spearheading it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. What do you think about this story being adapted as a series?
Source: Deadline