A+E Teams With ‘Tinder Swindler’ Producer On “Dadfluencer” Drama Series

A+E Media Group is teaming with The Tinder Swindler producer Raw on a thriller series about a “Dadfluencer.”

Influence comes from Ripper Street scribe Thomas Martin, who has penned Cannes competition series The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage.

The show follows Andrew Cosgrove, a Don Draper-like figure who has constructed the seemingly perfect life — and in the process, made his family an international brand. But when his youngest daughter Sophie is kidnapped, Andrew must reckon with his past or the decisions he’s made will come back to hurt those he loves.

A+E has been ramping up spend on international co-pros and is also backing The Kollective thriller with the European Alliance and a returnable series adaptation of Tony Parsons’ novel Your Neighbour’s Wife. Raw, meanwhile, mainly makes premium docs including The Tinder Swindler, Don’t F**k with Cats and a new social media series, all for Netflix, but has produced some scripted including Discovery’s Harley and the Davidsons and Channel 4’s Cyberbully.

Martin, who is also penning Apple TV+ thriller Prime Target starring Leo Woodall, said: “The inspiration for Influence came when a friend lost his job and confided in me about a deep fear of how his family would see him now that his success was gone, and his need to rapidly regain that status. I recently became a father myself so while Influence is a fun and exciting mystery thriller — it’s also an exploration of the pressures, challenges and anxieties of being a man and a father in a rapidly changing world.”

Executive producers are Sara Murray and Dimitri Doganis for Raw; and Patrick Vien, Alexandra Finlay, and Hannah Dal Pozzo for A+E Media Group.