Shiri Appleby is eyeing her feature directorial debut. The “UnREAL” alumna is in talks to helm “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” a Disney+ body-switching comedy. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.
Penned by Emma Fletcher (“Parks and Recreation”), the pic follows teenage friends — “a star football player on the rise and a brainy girl with few prospects — who wake up 20 years later to find out they are married and living a life neither of them expected.”
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and safety measures in place to help stop the spread of the virus, Appleby reportedly presented her take on the project to Disney execs via Zoom, a video communications platform.
“If a deal [is made], she is likely to be the first director to be hired by the studio in this fashion. The project has not been greenlit and is still in development, insiders say,” the source details.
Appleby’s extensive on-screen credits include “Roswell,” “ER,” “Life Unexpected,” “Chicago Fire,” “Girls,” and “UnREAL.” She directed four episodes of the latter, a Peabody-winning Lifetime drama set behind the scenes of a reality show.
“I started acting when I was three-years-old. And when we did ‘Roswell,’ we did sixty-one episodes [from 1999-2002]. We had one female director on the very last episode, and so I never had an image in my mind of what it would be like to see a female direct. I dated a lot of directors. Do you know what I mean? And not until I was 30 and I was on ‘Life Unexpected’ and I got to know this director, Liz Allen, that she gave me the push to start directing and I got my opportunity on ‘UnREAL,'” Appleby has revealed. “And I have to say since I’ve been on ‘UnREAL,’ I have been pushing and pushing and pushing to get an opportunity to direct on a show that I’m not acting in, and it has been incredibly challenging. This is my first episode that I’m directing and not acting in it,” she said of a 2019 episode of “Roswell, New Mexico,” “and it feels like I’m starting a new career.”
“Mixed-ish,” “Light as a Feather,” and “Pretty Little Liar: The Perfectionists” are among Appleby’s other directing credits.
