Brooke Bunny
A TV series based on the firecracker comedy-thriller “Heathers” – starring an adorable Christian Slater and a spunky Winona Ryder (not to mention a pre-90210 Shannen Doherty) – has been commissioned at TV Land.
Leslye Headland (”Sleeping With Other People”) will direct the pilot, says THR.
The original 1988 film was written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann and centered on Veronica (Winona Ryder) and rebel boyfriend J.D. (Christian Slater) and their trials and tribulations dealing with the social order in high school.
TV Land’s take is described as a black comedy that takes place in the present day. It features a new set of popular-yet-evil Heathers — only this time the outcasts have become high school royalty. Heather McNamara (originally played by Lisanne Falk) is a black lesbian; Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) is a male who identifies as gender-queer whose real name is Heath; and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) has a body like Martha Dumptruck.
The new series was written by Jason Micallef (“Butter”). Insiders say the anthology aspect of the show will be similar to FX’s “Fargo” – each season there’ll be a new group of “Heathers”.
This isn’t the first time a pilot for a “Heathers” series has been commissioned. In 2012, Bravo teamed with Jenny Bickls to develop a reboot that fixed on “The Ashleys”, a nextgeneraton of “Heathers”. The series was ultimately canned.
