“Heathers,” the 1988 cult black comedy that starred Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty, is becoming a TV series.
The original film follows 4 teenage girls — three of whom are wealthy and beautiful, and named Heather — in the most dominant clique at a fictional Ohio high school: the leader, Heather Chandler; the quiet, bookish and bulimic Heather Duke; and the weak-willed cheerleader Heather McNamara. Though they are the most popular students, the Heathers are both feared and hated. They invite 17-year-old Veronica Sawyer to join their group, by association making her a very popular girl as well. However, Veronica has had enough of their selfish behavior and longs to return to her old life and her nerdy friends.
A TV series adaptation has been in the works for years; in 2009, Fox TV and Sony studios teamed up to produce a “Heathers” series, which was was to be a modernized version of the original story, and all characters from the film were expected to be scripted into the adaptation; in 2012, the Bravo network began developing a “Heathers” TV reboot, which wasn’t at all connected to the Fox/Sony project. Neither proposed series ever made it to broadcast.
Finally, earlier this year, March 2016, TV Land ordered a “Heathers” series as an anthology dark comedy set in the present day, with a very different but equally vicious group of Heathers. The series is being written by Jason Micallef and Tom Rosenberg, which Gary Lucchesi will executive produce for Lakeshore Entertainment.
Announced today, the TV Land series is moving forward, with some of its starring cast members now revealed; and in a couple of twists on the original, one of the Heathers in the series will be male, and another will be black. In the 1988 film, all the Heathers were played by young white actresses.
Of note, given this blog’s specific interests, newcomer Jasmine Matthews (photo above) will play Heather McNamara, the weak-willed cheerleader who was played by Lisanne Falk in the original film.
Matthews just graduated (as in 2016) with an MFA in Theatre from UNLV, and doesn’t even have an IMDB page yet. Per her resume, her past credits are all in theatre, so this is very likely her first on-screen role, so kudos!
Matthews will be joined in TV Land’s potential “Heathers” series (only a pilot has been ordered at this time) by Brendan Scannell, the male Heather; although he will be go by Heath Duke (Heather Duke in the movie was played by Shannen Doherty), and he identifies as gender-queer. Broadway actress Melanie Field will play clique leader Heather Chandler (played by Kim Walker in the movie). Grace Cox will play protagonist Veronica Sawyer, while newcomer James Scully will play JD (parts that were played by Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, respectively, in the movie.)
Jasmine Matthews is repped by Red Letter Entertainment and Gersh.
