Another day, another batch of women-centric and created series announced. Projects from “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer and showrunners Ilene Chaiken (“The L Word”) and Liz Meriwether (“New Girl”) may be heading our way, according to reports from Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.
Deadline confirms that Tomorrow Studios is developing a TV adaptation of Meyer’s “The Chemist.” The 2016 thriller novel is about a woman working for “a U.S. government agency so clandestine it didn’t even have a name.” “When they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it’s her only chance to erase the giant target on her back but it means taking one last job for her ex-employers.”
Meyer and Meghan Hibbett are producing via Fickle Fish Films. Tomorrow Studios’ Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements will also produce.
“Stephenie is one of the most prolific authors of our time with her unique portrayal of heroines that resonate with readers and television viewers around the world,” said Adelstein. “We look forward to working with her and Meghan on bringing the ‘The Chemist’ to television.”
Meyer and Hibbett’s other producing credits include Jerusha Hess’ “Austenland” and the upcoming fantasy thriller “Down a Dark Hall.”
According to THR, Fox has ordered an untitled FBI drama pilot from Chaiken and a daughter-father comedy produced by Meriwether.
Chaiken, who renewed her contract with 20th Century Fox last summer, will write and exec produce the hourlong FBI drama with Melissa Scrivner-Love (“Person of Interest”). The duo created the project. Originally known as “Mrs. Otis Regrets,” the pilot is about “FBI Special Agent Clementine Otis, whose reputation is ruined in the midst of investigating a domestic terrorism threat when it comes to light that she had an affair with a prominent general.”
Judy Smith and Oly Obst will join Chaiken and Scrivner-Love as EPs.
Meriwether, Obst, and Josh Lieberman are producing “Daddy Issues,” written by and starring Erin Foster (“Barely Famous”). The project is a semi-biographical take on Foster’s relationship with her actual father, record producer David Foster. “Daddy Issues” “revolves around Andy, whose relationship with her playboy dad is complicated by the fact that he’s fallen in love with her best friend.”
ABC recently ordered a comedy from Diablo Cody and three women-centric dramas, and CBS’ first three pilot orders are all women-created.
