That was fast: Buzzfeed reports that ABC Family has killed the pilot Alice In Arabia. A spokesperson for the network told Buzzfeed, “The current conversation surrounding our pilot was not what we had envisioned and is certainly not conducive to the creative process, so we’ve decided not to move forward with this project.”
The proposed pilot, which was created by former Army cryptolinguist Brooke Eikmeier, drew criticism online and from groups like the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee for perpetuating stereotypes against Muslims. The latter group wrote a letter to ABC executives, stating: “The imagery and depiction of the respective communities as kidnappers and oppressors of women, reinforces harmful stereotypical depictions of the communities as thieves, criminals, persons who engage in violent acts, captives and/or persecutors.”
The story was to follow an Arab-American girl accidentally kidnapped by her extended family and forced to come to terms with life behind the veil in Riyadh. Buzzfeed obtained a draft of the script, found here.
On the plus side, this story has provided us a lot of wonderful photoshopped images of Alice from Alice In Wonderland wearing a headscarf.