We might be getting more Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Elise Elliot Atchison, Brenda Morelli Cushman, and Annie MacDuggan Paradis. That’s right: TV adaptations of “Hidden Figures” and “First Wives Club” are in the works at National Geographic and Paramount Network, respectively.
Variety confirms that Nat Geo’s “Hidden Figures” series is currently in the early stages of development. The film’s producers Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping are executive producing. Nat Geo will produce.
Based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s book, 2016’s “Hidden Figures” presents the true story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), brilliant mathematicians who played an essential part in the early days of the United States’ space program. They were also black women, and therefore largely ignored by history.
The film earned over $235 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, inspired several initiatives for young women pursuing STEM careers, and received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for Spencer.
Meanwhile, Paramount has revived the long-gestating “First Wives Club” TV series, Deadline reports. TV Land picked up an earlier pilot based on the 1996 comedy but ended up passing on the series. “Girls Trip” co-writer Tracy Oliver retooled the project, which Paramount has given a pilot order.
The original “First Wives Club,” adapted from Olivia Goldsmith’s 1992 novel, starred Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton as divorced friends who decide to get back at their ex-husbands, who left them for younger women.
Paramount’s half-hour comedy version will cover similar territory, following a “group of women who band together after their marriages fall apart, and who find strength in their sisterhood — and of course a little revenge.”
Oliver is writing and exec producing the “First Wives Club” pilot. Karen Rosenfelt (“The Devil Wears Prada”) will also EP with the film’s producer Scott Rudin.
Set to make her feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Danielle Vega’s 2015 YA novel “Survive the Night,” Oliver also wrote the screenplay for “The Sun Is Also a Star,” another upcoming film based on a YA book. The latter will be directed by Ry Russo-Young and toplined by “Grown-ish” star Yara Shahidi.
