Yahoo Lifestyle Claire Danes Reunites With ‘My So-Called Life’ Creator Winnie Holzman for New HBO Drama (EXCLUSIVE)
More than 30 years after they worked together on the seminal coming-of-age TV series “My So-Called Life,” star Claire Danes and creator Winnie Holzman are aiming to reunite, Variety has exclusively learned. HBO is developing the family drama “The Applebaum Curse,” which would come from Holzman and star Danes.
Per the logline, “The Applebaum Curse” is being eyed as an “ongoing one-hour drama series about a dysfunctional family with Claire Danes as the lead role.” Danes would also serve as an executive producer on the series in addition to starring, while Holzman would serve as writer/exec producer as well as showrunner.
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Holzman shared the news on the red carpet at this weekend’s Writers Guild Awards, where she was nominated in adapted screenplay (along with Dana Fox) for the film “Wicked.”
Asked why there had never been an attempt to re-create the groundbreaking “My So-Called Life” in this age of remakes and reboots, Holzman said, “It’s interesting that you’re asking me that. I am writing something that I’m hoping to do with Claire. It’s not a reboot in the traditional sense, but I think Claire Danes and I back together would be a kind of version of that.”
Indeed, for viewers of a certain generation, the idea of Holzman and Danes re-creating some “My So-Called Life” magic will be huge news. That series ran for just one year on ABC, 1994-1995, but it had a profound impact on how teenage coming-of-age tales were told on screen.
“My So-Called Life” helped launch the career of Danes, who earned a Golden Globe Award and Emmy nomination for the show, as well as fellow young stars like Jared Leto and Wilson Cruz. It also paved the way for future hit series about teens like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” two shows that were clearly inspired by the gut-wrenchingly honest portrayal by Danes and her co-stars — as written by Holzman — of adolescent angst.
Holzman made it clear that “The Applebaum Curse” isn’t a “My So-Called Life” reboot, as “it’s a completely different story. But we’re hopeful that we’re gonna work together again. I’m writing it now, and it’s hopefully gonna be at HBO, so we’ll see. I have to cross my fingers! You never know what’s gonna happen, but Claire would love to do this with me, so I’m excited.”
Danes, of course, became a major star in the years after “My So-Called Life,” both in film (“Romeo + Juliet,” “Brokedown Palace”) and back in TV, winning an Emmy for the HBO film “Temple Grandin,” and two more Emmys as star of Showtime’s “Homeland.”
Most recently, Danes starred in the FX limited series “Fleishman Is In Trouble,” for which she was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe. And next she’s set to star in the Netflix limited series “The Beast in Me,” which she exec produces with Gabe Rotter, Howard Gordon, Jodie Foster and Conan O’Brien.
As for Holzman, she also worked with “My So-Called Life” exec producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick on their 1999-2002 series “Once and Again,” and created the ABC Family series “Huge” with her daughter Savannah Dooley. She was also an EP on Cameron Crowe’s Showtime series “Roadies.”
But Holzman’s biggest success over the past two decades has been writing the book to the Broadway musical “Wicked” (alongside the music and lyrics of Stephen Schwartz), which is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. “Wicked,” of course, was recently turned into a smash feature film — and will soon be followed up with “Wicked: For Good.”
Danes is repped by WME, Michael Aglion at Signpost Management and Ziffren Brittenham. Holzman is repped by CAA.
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