The Broadway musical Wicked is making its way to the small screen in an 8-part miniseries produced by ABC and Salma Hayek.
The eight-part mini will be based on the best seller that spawned the Broadway musical but will not be a musical itself.
Salma Hayek and ABC are developing an eight-hour miniseries adaptation of Wicked.
Hayek and her partner Jose Tamez will produce via their Ventanarosa Prods. with ABC Studios. The project is in the early stages of development, so it's unclear whether Hayek will also appear in Wicked.
The miniseries genre is all but dead on broadcast television. But ABC has kept that fire burning with periodic longform projects including the Craig Zadan and Neil Meron-produced A Raisin in the Sun with Sean Combs and Phylicia Rashad.
Hayek's Wicked will be based on the Gregory Maguire best seller Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which spawned the Broadway musical. But the miniseries will not be a musical, sources said.
Erik Jendersen, who was a producer on HBO's miniseries Band of Brothers, is writing the script.
Hayek has had a successful relationship with ABC, having produced Ugly Betty for the network. She currently has another telenovela adaptation in development at ABC Studios; Los Roldan is based on the Argentinian telenovela about a working-class man who saves a woman's life. To reward him, she gives him a job running her company, despite the disapproval of her family.
Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter.