Titan1Studios Adapting Stephen R. Bown’s ‘The Company: The Rise and Fall Of The Hudson’s Bay Empire’ As Historical Drama Series

EXCLUSIVE: This one’s being billed as “The Crown meets Peaky Blinders” – albeit set on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Calgary’s Titan1Studios has secured media and adaptation rights to Stephen R. Bown‘s historical book The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire, and is developing a TV drama series titled House of Hudson.

The series will be centered on “the cutthroat, 19th-century corporate battles that forged a continent,” with Titan1Studios, which has exclusive media and adaptation rights, underway on development. A search for a showrunner is underway.

Here’s the synopsis: “Set against the dramatic backdrop of the 1820s, House of Hudson operates as The Crown meets Peaky Blinders – exploring the bloody war of attrition between the Hudson’s Bay Company and its hyper-violent rival, the North West Company, culminating in their forced corporate merger and the ruthless rise of Sir George Simpson, the cold-blooded governor known as ‘The Little Emperor.'”

The plan is for the series to shift between “the opulent, scheming boardrooms of London and Montreal and the unforgiving wilderness,” looking at at British imperial machinery in the UK, the struggle for the Pacific Northwest frontier in the U.S., and the corporate origins of modern Canada. “At its core, it is a universal, character-driven boardroom thriller about the global cost of early capitalism,” said Titan1Studios.

Bown’s book, The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire, was published in 2020 and is known for taking a fresh perspective on foundational Canadian stories, with a broader look at events that highlight characters not previously part of dominant narratives. Since release, the book has won the 2021 National Business Book Award and the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.

“Stephen R. Bown managed to take a foundational piece of North American history and frame it with the relentless pacing, psychological depth, and tension of a modern corporate drama,” said Rathan Moorthy, CEO and executive producer of Titan1Studios.

“The Hudson’s Bay Company was effectively the Amazon of the 19th century – a multi-national corporate entity with its own currency, private military, and total control over millions of square miles. We are thrilled to bring Stephen’s masterwork to the screen for global television audiences.”

“When I wrote The Company, my goal was to bring the human drama, complex motivations, and fierce corporate rivalries of the fur trade to life,” added. Bown. “Titan1Studios shares a compelling, clear vision for how to translate this high-stakes narrative into a visually stunning, character-focused television event. I’m excited to see this epic story brought to a whole new audience.”

Titan1Studios’ Moorthy and VP of Content Wes Ambrecht are leading on the project, with the rights negotiations handled in collaboration with Jake Babad and Caroline Vassallo at Westwood Creative Art.

Bown has authored several books on history, exploration and biography, including The Company, Island of the Blue Foxes and Dominion, and his books have been translated into multiple languages, earning acclaim for their cinematic storytelling and rigorous historical research.

For Titan1Studios, the option adds to a slate already including heist drama Sideshow (working title), an Events at Unity Farm TV adaptation and a franchise project based around Steve Lerner’s Cat Assassin, with Dave Bautista’s Dogbone Entertainment also attached.