Apple Makes a Big Deal for Elliot Ackerman Novel ‘Sheepdogs’; Paramilitary tale adapted for series by Playtone’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman

Exclusive: In a strong year-end book deal, Apple Studios has paid seven figures for the Elliot Ackerman novel Sheepdogs for Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman to develop as a series. The book will be published in the summer of 2025 by Alfred K. Knopf/Penguin Random House. Eleven bidders were in the mix.

Ackerman is a former Marine Corps special operations team leader whose books include Halcyon, Green on Blue and Waiting for Eden. He also wrote 2034 and its sequel 2054 with Admiral James Stavridis.

Sheepdogs revolve around Skwerl and Cheese, two elite paramilitary soldiers who are down on their luck. Skwerl is a former Marine who used to work for the CIA’s elite paramilitary wing, but was fired after a raid went wrong in Afghanistan. Big Cheese Aziz is a legendary pilot, but the fall of Kabul has left him working the night shift at a gas station. Skwerl recruits Cheese to an anonymous network of so-called sheepdogs,…