Screenwriter Diablo Cody has the hot hand in television development these days, with Variety reporting that ABC has nabbed Cody’s latest television project, an American adaptation of the British family comedy Raised By Wolves. Cody will write the project and produce it alongside small-screen mogul Greg Berlanti, and ABC has committed to the script with a built-in penalty if Wolves doesn’t make it to pilot phase.
The American version will follow Sheila Gable, a single mother raising her five wacky children on a very limited budget and looking after her cantankerous father, a set-up that evokes comparisons with Roseanne and Shameless. The remake grants Wolves a new lease on life just weeks after Britain’s Channel 4 canceled the show after 13 episodes.
Cody was drafted to work on the project by Berlanti’s production company based on her experience writing precocious teens and tough parents in scripts for Juno and Ricki And The Flash. She’s also got experience adapting ideas for television, having created Showtime’s United States Of Tara from a loose concept dreamed up by Steven Spielberg. Cody is also the co-creator of Tig Notaro’s forthcoming Amazon comedy One Mississippi.