For its 12th and final drama pilot order of the season, ABC is going ahead with a pilot for Lucky 7, which is an adaptation of the British series The Syndicate. Just renewed for its second season, the British drama follows a group of supermarket employees who win the lottery on a ticket bought together.
The U.S. version will have the lucky lottery winners be employees at service station in Queens, and the number of people who share the win will be upped from 5, in the British series, to 7. It will explore the ways in which their lives are changed by the windfall. The format of the series has each episode look at one character at a time and examine the impact the money has on that person and those around them. Every season will follow the same format, but with a different group of people.
David Zabel and Jason Richman, who have already worked together in the past on Detroit 1-8-7, are the writers for the adaptation, and will be executive producing alongside Darren Frank and Justin Falvey of Amblin TV. Also on board to executive produce is the creator of the BBC version of the show, Kay Mellor, according to Deadline. Both Zabel and Amblin have other pilots going ahead at ABC this season as well. Zabel’s is the drama Betrayal, and Amblin is behind the comedy Middle Age Rage.
Since the project is a drama, it will be interesting to see whether they choose to explore the so-called lottery curse, a real life phenomenon in which lottery winners encounter incredible bad luck after the major good luck of winning. THS Investigates: Curse of the Lottery took a look at some of the stories. It will be interesting to see if any of the true stories provide inspiration for the show.
