‘Raised By Wolves’ Comedy From Diablo Cody & Berlanti TV Gets ABC Pilot Order
ABC has given a pilot order to Raised by Wolves, a single-camera comedy from Juno writer Diablo Cody and Berlanti Productions.
Written by Cody, Raised by Wolves is an adaptation of the 2015 UK comedy series. It centers on Sheila Gable, one tough mother struggling to support her five opinionated, eccentric kids on a shoestring budget in a Midwestern town.
This marks the second half-hour comedy pilot for Greg Berlanti’s Berlanti Prods., which has six drama series on the air, following a project co-written by him and Greg Mailins, which was piloted by CBS five years ago.
It was Berlanti Prods. president Sarah Schechter who fell in love with the Channel 4 series Raised by Wolves, which was created and written by popular British columnist and author Caitlin Moran and her sister Caroline based on their childhood experience.
As she began chasing rights to the series, Schechter reached out to Cody about joining the project as a producer as Schechter felt that Caitlin Moran shared a similar sensibility with the Oscar winner and the show featured the type of central characters Cody knows and does very well: smart teenagers and a strong mother. Not only did Cody come on board, she offered to write the adaptation. After securing U.S. rights from UK producer Big Talk in a competitive situation, Berlanti Prods. went on to develop the project internally, with Cody writing a pilot script, tapping into her Midwest upbringing to transplant the comedy from the British Midlands to middle America. Caitlin Moran was involved in the process, giving notes.
With its strong mother at the center and blue-collar setting, Raised by Wolves draws parallels to Roseanne, making ABC a logical home for the adaptation. It also taps into ABC’s push to add more series that reflect the lives of everyday Americans. In addition to Raised by Wolves, the network also ordered a pilot for a Kentucky sheriff drama from Marc Cherry starring Reba McEntire.
Cody, Berlanti, Schechter and the Morans executive produce Raised by Wolves, which had a script commitment plus penalty, alongside Big Talk’s Kenton Allen and Matthew Justice as well as Caroline Leddy, who exec produced the original series alongside Allen, for Warner Bros TV, Berlanti Prods. and Big Talk Prods.
This is the second pilot order for Berlanti Prods. this season, joining drama Deception, also at ABC.
In TV, Cody created the Showtime comedy series United States of Tara and co-created with Tig Noraro the comedian’s Amazon series One Mississippi, which has been renewed for a second season.
This is ABC’s second comedy pilot order this season, joining Libby and Malcolm, which stars Felicity Huffman and Courtney B. Vance. On the drama side, the network has greenlighted four pilots in addition to the straight-to-series Marvel drama The Inhumans.
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