Young ‘Ellen’ Stars Sophia Grace & Rosie To Topline NBC Comedy & Feature Produced By Ellen DeGeneres
EXCLUSIVE: Are these the next Olsen twins? Ellen standouts Sophia Grace Brownlee and Rosie McClelland, are getting their own primetime show, which will be executive produced by Ellen DeGeneres. It is part of the big plans DeGeneres’ company, A Very Good Production, has for the young cousins. It also is producing a direct-to-video feature toplined by the pint-sized stars who have emerged as one of the biggest ratings draws on DeGeneres’ talk show.
Sophia Grace, 10, and Rosie, 7, are set to star in a comedy series project that has been set up at NBC with a script commitment. A Very Good Prods is producing in association with Warner Bros TV, where the company is based, with DeGeneres and Jeff Kleeman executive producing. Search is underway for a writer to hone in on a premise. In the movie, written by Erik Patterson & Jessica Scott and directed by Brian Levant, Sophia Grace and Rosie, playing versions of themselves, are sent to be correspondents at a royal coronation: one of three princesses is going to be chosen to lead the country. The two girls find themselves caught up in royal intrigue as they help the best candidate win the throne. Production on the film, done through Warner Bros’ home video division, starts next month.
British girls Sophia Grace and Rosie became overnight celebrities with their viral video of Sophia Grace, then 8, giving a spirited rendition of Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass. Based on that video, the producers of Ellen invited the girls to the show where they became instant stars and frequent guests. Their music performances on the show garnered millions of views online, led by the 66+ million hits for Sophia Grace’s duet with Minaj (see the video below). What’s more, the girls are defying the conventional wisdom that celebrities appeal to fans the same age or younger with a big grown-up following, something very few youngsters have accomplished — most notably Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who also started off as sitcom and direct-to-video film stars on their way to building a media and fashion empire. Sophia Grace and Rosie’s crossover appeal is demonstrated by their frequent interaction with adults on Ellen, including chats with Reese Witherspoon and Taylor Swift, and red carpet stints at major awards show. ICM Partners-repped A Good Production has several other projects at the broadcast networks, including a comedy from Judge Greg Mathis at Fox and drama from Lauren Graham at the CW. Sophia Grace and Rosie are managed by Principato-Young; Patterson and Scott are with APA and Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson & Binder, LLP.
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