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Ellen DeGeneres is teaming up with the couple behind the hit musical “Come From Away” to develop a one-hour drama at The CW, Variety has learned exclusively.
The potential series will be based on Katie McKenna’s memoir “How to Get Run Over by a Truck.” At age 24, McKenna was run over by an eighteen-wheeler. She survived against all odds when she was taken to the best trauma hospital in New York — the prison hospital at Rikers Island. With security guards at every door and prisoners chained to their beds, it’s the last place you’d want to recover, but with the help of her family, irrepressible wit and vivid fantasy life, Katie learns to fight back when life literally crushes her.
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Irene Sankoff and David Hein will serve as writers and executive producers on the project, with DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman of A Very Good Production also executive producing. Warner Bros. Television, where A Very Good Production is set up under an overall deal, will produce.
DeGeneres announced in May that she will continuing hosting her popular daytime talk show through at least 2022. She also currently hosts the NBC series “Ellen’s Game of Games,” which features contestants playing supersized versions of the games she has popularized through her talk show. NBC also announced that she will host three holiday specials titled “Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways” later this year. She is also an executive producer on the upcoming “Green Eggs and Ham” series at Netflix and previously executive produced the ABC comedy series “Splitting Up Together.”
Sankoff and Hein’s “Come From Away” was nominated for the Tony Award for best book and best score as well as the Grammy Award for best musical theater album. The show has also won and been nominated for numerous other awards.
DeGeneres is repped by ICM and Morris Yorn. McKenna is repped by UTA. Sankoff and Hein are repped by Abrams Artists Agency.
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