NBC has picked up a script based on Jacqueline Susann’s Hollywood-set pot-boiler Valley of the Dolls from Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels.
The project comes from 20th Century Fox TV and Chernin Entertainment. Daniels will write and direct and also serve as executive producer along with Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope.
The project is based on the 1967 big-screen adaptation of Susann’s 1966 best-seller that starred Patty Duke and Sharon Tate. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, the movie was panned by critics but proved a hit with movie-goers although the movie’s ending diverged from Susann’s book. There were two subsequent TV adaptations of Valley of the Dolls: a 1981 miniseries and a 1994 nighttime soap that lasted one season.
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The ’60s have been a popular decade this season with NBC’s The Playboy Club and ABC’s Pan Am. But while Pan Am premiered to solid ratings Sunday night, NBC has had less luck with Playboy, which tied with the short-lived 2008 drama Crusoe as the network’s lowest-rated fall premiere ever in the Monday at 10 p.m. timeslot.
Daniels is currently shooting The Paperboy with Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron. Daniels is repped by CAA.
