Salma Hayek Gets Wicked for ABC

Pasadena, CA -- The Hollywood buzz today is that actress/producer Salma Hayek along with her producing partner Jose Tamez, the same production team that brought you Ugly Betty, will team up once again with ABC to bring you an 8 hour miniseries based on Gregory Maguire’s best selling novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

When asked, ABC president, Paul Lee was sure to clarify that they are only in the development stage and that only the pilot script has been greenlit.

Maguire’s book, which also served as the inspiration for the film Wizard of Oz and the Broadway musical, Wicked revolves around two very powerful witches, Glinda, the good witch and Elphaba, the wicked witch of the West. However, unlike the stage production or the Wizard of Oz, this miniseries will not feature any music or dance numbers. (The adaptation of the stage production Wicked: The Musical into a feature film is being developed by Universal Pictures..)

Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers) is writing the TV miniseries adaptation and will also serve as one of the producers.

Shows about witches in the past have either been comedies (Bewitched, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch) or lighter fared dramas Charmed, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer) , and they have all enjoyed a great following and fairly long runs (avarage run of 8 years each).

The mini-series, which will more closely follow the book, will be a very different take from any of the other adaptations and the buzz is increasingly positive.

If the project makes it past the pilot script and all goes well, we could expect to see the 8-hour miniseies, Wicked on ABC in the fall 2011/Spring 2012 according to screenrant.com.