EXCLUSIVE: Podcasts are becoming one of the hottest breeding grounds for TV and film development execs – Amazon is adapting Gimlet Media’s Homecoming with Julia Roberts and Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail and FX is developing a series based on Twin Peaks-esque Welcome To Night Vale. Next up? Gossip, a soap opera fronted by New York Times best seller Allison Raskin.
Raskin, who recently published her debut novel, I Hate Everyone But You, is launching the 12-part scripted series after striking a deal with podcast firm Midroll Media, the company behind audio hits such as Marc Maron’s WTF and The Bill Simmons Podcast. It’s thought that Gossip is the first fictionalized comedic podcast soap opera.
Coming off the back of development deals with FX and YouTube Red, Raskin’s show, which starts production in the first quarter of 2018, may not stay long as an audio-only format and with screen rights likely to be snapped up.
The show, which is written by Raskin, who also hosts popular YouTube channel Just Between Us, follows three unlikely female friends as they meet each week to drink coffee and share the latest gossip floating around their not-so-traditional suburban town, Golden Acres. When the juicy stories involve infidelity, secret pasts and murder, does it even matter if the rumors are true?
The series, which will be released on the Stitcher podcast network in the spring, is exec produced by Matt Sadeghian, Jenny Radelet and Chris Bannon. Raskin is represented by Avalon Management and WME.
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