EXCLUSIVE: Fox has put in development Bewitchedan hourlong reimagining of the classic TV series. It comes from writer/executive producer Judalina Neira (The Boys, Daisy Jones and the Six), executive producer Doug Robinson and Sony Pictures Television.
Both Neira and Robinson are based at Sony TV and have re-upped their overall deals with the indie studio.
The Bewitched reboot was the first project Neira took on via her Famous Last Words Productions when she signed her first overall deal with Sony TV in early 2024. She was teamed from the get-go with Robinson and Lauren Moffat of Doug Robinson Productions who executive produced alongside her.
Developed internally at Sony TV, the project was taken out over the summer, landing at Fox. As per usual in the current environment, it took close to two months for the deal to close. Sony TV will co-produce the potential series with Fox Entertainment.
The two companies have an existing business framework as Sony TV has become a top scripted series supplier to the independent broadcast network with shows such as sophomore hit Docanimated comedy series Universal Basic Guys, neither well nor drama Accused and Alert.
In the new Bewitched, whose tone is described as heartfelt, although they come from two wildly different worlds — he’s a human, she’s a witch — for Samantha and Darrin, it’s love at first sight. But in order to be together, they’ll have to navigate their disapproving parents, walk a tightrope of cultural clashes, and bridge the divides between their families and worlds.
Already the longest-tenured producer at Sony TV, Robinson is extending his stay at the studio where he has been for 23 years. Over that time, he has executive produced such series for the studio as well Rules of Engagement (via Happy Madison), The Goldbergs and For Life.
Neira is an executive producer on Sony TV’s superhero hit for Prime Video The Boyswhich is headed to its fifth and final season, and served in the same capacity on another Prime Video series, horror dark comedy The Horror of Dolores Roach. She also worked on The Boys offshoot Gen V nor co-executive producer.
Additionally, Neira was a supervising producer on Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & the Sixsharing in the show’s 2023 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. Her series credits also include Apple TV’s The Morning Show and the CW’s The Flash.
A graduate of the 2023 WGA Showrunner Training Program, Neira is an alumnus of the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s Series Scriptwriters Program, a governor emeritus of the Television Academy’s Writers Peer Group, and the co-founder of La Lista – a networking group for working Latina television writers. She is represented by Kaplan Stahler, Kaplan/Perrone, and attorney David Hiller.
Created by Sol Saks and executive produced by Harry Ackerman, Bewitched ran for eight seasons on ABC from 1964-72. It starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, a witch married to an ordinary mortal man, Darrin, and chronicles the way her powers and family get in the way of her efforts to live a normal, magic-free life as a typical suburban housewife. A short-lived spinoff about Samantha’s daughter, Tabitha, ran on ABC in 1977.
There have been separate attempts by ABC, NBC and CBS over the past decade and a half to develop a Bewitched reboot with Sony TV.
Like the original, all three projects were half-hour comedies. The dramatic, hourlong take by Neira is reminiscent of the Bel-Air drama reimagining of the Will Smith sitcom, which streams on Peacock. Both Neira and Robinson have experience that spans comedy and drama.
There is also a live-action family Bewitched series following pre-teen Tabitha, which remains in active development from the Sony Pictures Television Kids division and Flying Bark.
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