“Sisterland” bestselling novel to be adapted into paranormal drama

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fake Empire’s Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage and Rina Mimoun were among the WB/CW’s top writer-producer talent. Now the trio have teamed at their new home, ABC Studios, where both Fake Empire and Mimoun are under overall deals. Their collaboration is drama project Sisterland, which has landed at ABC, Deadline said.

Based on the best-selling novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, Sisterland tells the story of identical twin sisters born with paranormal abilities and how those abilities shape their very different lives.

From Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” to “The Parent Trap” and beyond, twins have provided rich fodder for our stories. Mistaken identity makes for great farce, and, paradoxically, identical twinship provides a way to examine what makes us different. Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel, “Sisterland,” offers an intriguing look at what it might be like to have a double. Not the long lost double from whom you’ve been separated for most of your life, but the double who shares your room, your clothes and, in the case of these psychic sisters, some of your more disturbing thoughts.

Kate and Violet may look alike, especially as children, but it’s the artful rendering of each one’s idiosyncrasies that makes this novel so affecting. In this, as in her other books — “Prep,” “The Man of My Dreams” and “American Wife” — Sittenfeld’s confident, no-frills style belies the complexities of her characters and their relationships. Her protagonists tend to be shrewdly observant outliers, neither Queen Bees nor Wannabes; they seem relatable, and they make us feel complicit,” a review published at the New York times said.

Mimoun is writing the adaptation and is executive producing with Schwartz, Savage and Fake Empire president of television Len Goldstein.

This marks Fake Empire’s fourth sale in its first development season at ABC Studios. The company has another drama at ABC penned by Joshua Safran as well as two comedies, one by Ali Adler and one from writers Isaac Aptaker & Elizabeth Berger.

Mimoun, creator/exec producer of The CW’s Privileged, executive produces ABC’s summer series Mistresses, which was just picked up for season two. She also worked on Everwood, where she rose to showrunner, Gilmore Girls and Pushing Daisies.