Two of the funniest women to ever grace the small screen are teaming up for a film project. Carol Burnett and Tina Fey are joining forces on an adaptation of the former’s 2013 memoir, “Carrie and Me.” Deadline broke the news about the Focus Features title.
A New York Times bestseller, “Carrie and Me” is a tribute to Burnett’s late daughter, Carrie Hamilton. The “Carol Burnett Show” star shares details about “her daughter’s journey from teenage drug addiction to her sober adult life where she found happiness and success as an actress and a writer before her untimely passing from cancer at age 38,” the source writes.
Burnett and Fey are among the film’s producers. The former is producing via her Mabel Cat Productions company and the latter under her production company banner Little Stranger. Ian and Eshom Nelms (“Small Town Crime”) are penning the script. No word on a director.
Fey and fellow “SNL” alumna Amy Poehler presented Burnett with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 SAG Awards. The “30 Rock” star also paid tribute to Burnett at a ceremony honoring the 2013 Mark Twain Prize recipient. “You mean so much to me. I love you in a way that is just short of creepy,” Fey told Burnett. She revealed that her parents used Burnett’s iconic sketch series as a disciplinary tool. “If I ever got in trouble when I was a little kid, I was not allowed to take our family’s portable black and white TV up to my room and watch ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ on Saturday nights,” she explained.
Burnett’s credits as an exec producer include TV specials “The Carol Burnett 50th Anniversary Special,” “The Carol Burnett Show: Let’s Bump Up the Lights,” and “Carol Burnett: Show Stoppers.” Her most recent on-screen appearance was a 2018 episode of Rashida Jones’ TBS series “Angie Tribeca.”
Fey’s film producing credits include “Sisters” and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.” She also starred in both pics. On the small screen, she most recently co-created and exec produced Ellie Kemper-starrer “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” The Netflix comedy about a doomsday cult survivor who starts a new life in New York City completed its four-season run earlier this year. Fey co-stars in “Wine Country,” Poehler’s feature directorial debut. Set to premiere May 10 on Netflix, the comedy sees longtime friends traveling to Napa to celebrate a 50th birthday.
