Banachek and Ken Estin Take ‘Psychic Predators’ From Taipei to AFM
- The Scoop: Organic Media Group is shopping Psychic Predators, a paranormal dramatic comedy series, from Taiwan Creative Content Fest to the American Film Market.
- Talent Pairing: Veteran showrunner Ken Estin (Taxi, Cheers) oversees the series while real-life mentalist Banachek stars as himself.
- Creative Engine: Creator and executive producer Steve Chicorel wrote the pilot, titled “The Voice of God,” built around a fraud-busting undercover unit.
- Market Play: The project launches as an original property with no franchise baggage, positioned squarely at international buyers across two consecutive markets.
Organic Media Group is taking Psychic Predators from the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei straight to the American Film Market, shopping the paranormal dramatic comedy to international buyers.
The series pairs veteran showrunner Ken Estin with working mentalist Banachek, who stars as himself in a scripted takedown of the clairvoyant trade.
Banachek’s Trade Secrets Give the Series Its Unfair Advantage
Banachek built his career on exposing the methods behind claimed supernatural gifts, which hands the production a credibility most genre procedurals manufacture from research binders.
The premise follows a famed mentalist who openly admits his feats are tricks, then goes undercover alongside a disguise-specialist magician and a hard-charging female FBI agent to dismantle fraudulent psychics.
That trio structure gives the show a case-of-the-week spine with a built-in skeptic’s voice at its center, rather than another earnest investigation unit chasing shadows.
Estin, whose credits include Taxi, Cheers, and The Tracey Ullman Show, is steering the creative direction, applying sitcom-honed comic timing to material about deception and belief.
“Like ‘M A S*H,’ which illuminated the horrors of war, comedy lets us get past people’s defenses so they can hear important messages, like the ones Steve & Banachek built into ‘Psychic Predators’ to explore the magic of why we believe, and what happens when someone exploits that belief.”, Ken Estin
Two Markets, One Sales Pitch: Why Taipei and AFM Back-to-Back Matters
Launching at TCCF before landing at AFM gives the project consecutive exposure windows to Asian and American buyers within a compressed sales cycle.
Steve Chicorel, who created the series and executive produces, wrote the pilot “The Voice of God,” anchoring the pitch with a completed script rather than a concept deck.
That matters at a market where buyers sift through hundreds of packages; a finished pilot script and a marquee mentalist give Organic Media Group concrete material to screen.
The project carries no sequel or remake baggage, which lets distributors position it as a fresh original rather than a familiar title requiring audience education.
Estin’s track record across network comedy mainstays provides the commercial shorthand buyers need, while Banachek’s public profile supplies the novelty hook that sells a concept in a crowded market hallway.
For a series still assembling its full cast, the immediate priority is a commissioning commitment, and the dual-market rollout is designed to convert buyer curiosity into that first order before the sales calendar resets.
Distribution terms and platform partners are being held close by the producers pending those market conversations, tracked across our trade entertainment wire desk as the package moves through AFM.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.
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