Mila Kunis Is Making a Comedy About the Juicy Couture Founders
UPDATED: Three years after the end of Gossip Girl, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are taking on another fashion-themed series project. The duo’s Fake Empire has teamed with Mila Kunis’ Orchard Farms Productions for Made In LA, a half-hour comedy about friendship and fashion for Freeform (formerly ABC Family). It is based on The Glitter Plan, the memoir from Juicy Couture founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor, which details how they founded their global clothing brand on just $200. Schwartz and Savage’s frequent collaborator Sascha Rothchild will write the adaptation. She will executive produce alongside Schwartz, Savage and Orchard Films’ Kunis, Cami Curtis, Susan Curtis, and Lisa Sterbakov. Fake Empire head executive Lis Rowinski will co-executive produce the project, which was brought in by the company’s creative exec Lynley Bird. ABC Signature, the cable division of ABC Studios, where both Fake Empire and Orchard Farms have deals, produces.
Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor met while working together at a Los Angeles boutique and became friends, setting up shop in Gela’s one-bedroom Hollywood apartment. The initial $200 investment led to a a $50 million sale of the duo’s casual wear company to Liz Claiborne.
This is the fourth collaboration between Rothchild and Fake Empire; they most recently worked on the CW’s drama The Carrie Diaries, about the high school years of future fashionista Carrie Bradshaw. In features, Rothchild wrote Badge Bunnies for Will Smith and Sony and Who Invited Her for DreamWorks with Reese Witherspoon attached to star.
This marks the sixth development sale for Orchard Farm Productions since the company was formed last year. Other projects include comedy Champion: The Jeff Beekman Story, which landed a put pilot commitment at Fox; comedy The Russians Are Coming at NBC, written by Sam Wolfson; and horror comedy Trapped at Starz with Rob Zombie.
Fake Empire has put pilot commitments at Fox for supernatural dramedy Horrorstör, written by Schwartz and Black List screenwriter Michael Vukadinovich, and based on the same-name novel by Grady Hendrix, with Gail Berman and Charlie Kaufman also exec producing, and at ABC for comedy Read Bottom Up based on the novel by Neel Shah and Sloane Crosley who will adapt, with Ben Karlin exec producing. At ABC, the company also has drama The Party, inspired by the Brazilian television series, with Schwartz and Savage writing.
Schwartz, Savage and Fake Empire are repped by WME and attorney Joel McKuin. Orchard Farm Productions is repped by Patti Felker and CAA. Rothchild is repped by Apostle, WME, and Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson and Binder. Gersh reps Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor as well as Glitter Plan.
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