The Big D, a drama series co-written and co-directed by alumni Samantha Buck '16 and Marie Schlingmann '16, is being developed by HBO. The film marks the pair’s first excursion into the world of TV with Buck and Schlingmann serving as writers and co-executive producers on the project.
The Big D is set during a hot and hotly contested summer in Dallas 1980. It follows a triangle of women as their lives collide to unearth a secret past involving the city’s would-be First Lady, Pat Pangburn, and her mysterious bout of amnesia.
The series will be produced by Lily Rabe’s Kill Claudio Productions, the company that already worked with the duo on their first feature film Sister Aimee, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was released by 1091 Media. The film had its theatrical debut in March of this year.
Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann are a married writing and directing duo. Their shorts have played at the Telluride Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, and others. Buck directed the Peabody Award–winning documentary Best Kept Secret. She received grants from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and The Adrienne Shelly Foundation. Schilingmann is from Berlin and was a recipient of the David Jones Memorial Award and ASCAP Scoring Fellowship.
The Big D doesn’t have a release date yet.
