HBO Max’s lineup is coming into focus. The upcoming WarnerMedia streaming service has ordered pilots for a half-hour dramedy from “Girls” alumna Lena Dunham and a “Practical Magic” prequel from “Jessica Jones” creator Melissa Rosenberg. HBO Max also snagged the rights to Meryl Streep-starrer “Let Them All Talk,” a comedy feature.
Exec produced by Dunham, “Generation” tells the story of a group of high school students “whose exploration of modern sexuality (devices and all) tests deeply entrenched beliefs about life, love, and the nature of family in their conservative community,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project will benefit from a real-life teen’s perspective. Seventeen-year-old Zelda Barnz is co-writing the script with her her father, Daniel Barnz.
Based on Alice Hoffman’s novels “Rules of Magic” and “Practical Magic,” Rosenberg’s “Rules of Magic” scored a “sizable pilot production commitment that comes complete with an additional 10-script order and mandate to open a writers room,” THR details. The family drama is set in 1960s NYC and “revolves around three troubled siblings — Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens — who wrestle with ‘abnormalities’ that have kept them isolated. But the tumultuous times unearth the extraordinary discovery that they are, in fact, descendants of a bloodline of witches. In their aspirational journey toward self-discovery and self-acceptance, they will contend with grief, war, bigotry, and dark magic, not to mention a centuries-old curse designed to keep them away from love,” the source summarizes.
Rosenberg is writing the script and is among “Rules of Magic’s” exec producers. Hoffman’s “Practical Magic” served as the source material for the 1998 feature of the same name starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.
Penned by PEN/Faulkner award-winning author Deborah Eisenberg, “Let Them All Talk” sees Streep playing a successful author “who takes a journey on a cruise ship with some old friends (Candice Bergen, Dianne Wiest) to have some fun and heal old wounds. Her nephew (Lucas Hedges) comes along to wrangle the ladies and finds himself involved with a young literary agent (Gemma Chan),” THR hints.
Streep, who was last seen in Season 2 of “Big Little Lies,” is set to receive the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Tribute Actor Award. The three-time Oscar winner will accept the honor at the fest’s Tribute Gala awards event on September 9.
HBO Max’s scripted originals are set to debut in 2020.