It looks like a new generation may get to experience the highs and lows of Lelaina Pierce, Troy Dyer, and the rest of the gang as a comedy series based on the seminal 1994 flick “Reality Bites” has gotten a script order at NBC.
EW has confirmed a Deadline report that Ben Stiller (who directed the original film and played straitlaced TV exec Michael Graves) is revisiting the film as a show and is attached to executive produce; original screenwriter Helen Childress will pen the script.
Much like the original, the series will reportedly take place in the early ’90s and center on novice filmmaker Pierce and her slacker friends in Houston after their college graduation. While no casting was announced, it’s safe to say Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller, and the rest of the original cast, which also included Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn, will probably not be reprising their roles. (Although it would be great to see Garofalo’s Vickie working at Gap’s corporate office two decades after she mastered the art of folding.)
Universal Television is producing the series along with Stiller’s Red Hour Television and Double Feature Films, the company run by Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, who were producers on the original film.
Will the humor of ’90s flannel-clad youth translate to today’s audience? Or will there be a sense of, ahem, irony?
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