Lifetime nabs Renée Zellweger’s “Cinnamon Girl” drama to pilot

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lifetime has given Renée Zellweger’s drama project Cinnamon Girl a pilot order, Deadline said.

The period drama set against the backdrop of the Los Angeles music and movie scenes of the late 1960s/early 1970s was put on fast-track development by Lifetime in October when president Nancy Dubuc called it “a game changer” for the network.

Oscar winner Zellweger co-created Cinnamon Girl with Anthony Tambakis (Warrior). The drama tells the story of four coming-of-age girls — Cassie, Lola, Junie and Lou — and explores their lives at the crossroads of the era’s political, artistic, social and sexual rebellions.

The genesis of the idea is a combination of Zellweger’s real-life journey from small-town Texas to Hollywood stardom and Tambakis’ lifelong fascination with the Laurel Canyon music scene and the New Hollywood, auteur-driven era that began in the late ’60s.

Zellweger and Tambakis will executive produce Cinnamon Girl with Gavin O’Connor, who co-wrote Warrior with Tambakis and directed the movie. CAA-repped Zellweger and Tambakis co-wrote the story, with Tambakis writing the script, O’Connor set to direct the pilot and Danny Bramson (Almost Famous) serving as producer and music supervisor.

Cinnamon Girl marks Zellweger’s second collaboration with Lifetime. In 2008, she executive produced the 2008 original movie Living Proof starring Harry Connick Jr. The green light for Cinnamon Girl comes on the heels of the recent pilot orders to The Secret Lives Of Wives and Witches Of East End as Lifetime is ramping up scripted development.