TV Land orders Heathers pilot, gets Leslye Headland to direct it

By Danette Chavez  |  September 7, 2016 | 2:05pm
Aux Features TV

It’s only been six months since TV Land shared its intentions to adapt Heathers in an effort to woo younger viewers with a dark comedy from the late ’80s. But the project’s gaining traction at the former home of The Jim Gaffigan Show, which has nudged its idea for a reverse–Heathers along at a brisker pace than the updated version that Bravo toyed with for a while. TV Land’s just green-lit a pilot for the anthology series, which envisions a world in which a high school’s most powerful clique is made up of the kind of marginalized students who are usually at the mercy of powerful cliques: LGBT and plus-size teens.

The network has tapped Leslye Headland (Sleeping With Other People) to direct the pilot, for maximum emotional damage. Headland adapted her own play for 2012’s Bachelorette, which she also directed. She also wrote the About Last Night remake starring Kevin Hart and Regina Hall that fizzled. But Headland also wrote for FX’s great-but-abbreviated Terriers. You remember Terriers—you loved Terriers! Besides, Sleeping With Other People and Bachelorette are hilarious and dark, so it looks like this Heathers remake just got a shot in the arm.

Heathers is being produced by Underworld franchise vets Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi, who also worked on The Lincoln Lawyer together. The series will be written by Butter and Play-Doh movie scribe Jason Micallef.

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