EXCLUSIVE: Edie Windsor’s memoir A Wild and Precious Life, the story of the acclaimed LGBTQ activist, is being developed as a limited series by Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak’s That’s Wonderful Productions and Warner Bros. TV, which optioned the book for television development. Adam Milch (The Morning Show) is attached to write, showrun and executive produce.
The book, which will serve as source material for the series, will explore the life of Windsor, a marriage equality icon of the gay rights movement, her inspiring love story and how it changed the world, by overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The project is timely as many perceive civil rights in the U.S., including marriage equality, under threat.
Per the logline: “Edie’s remarkable story changed history, but she was far from a traditional hero, and this series will be anything but your stuffy biopic. Known as the “Grand Dame of gay rights,” Edie was a bombshell in every way: bitingly smart (she was one of IBM’s first engineers), glamorous and hilariously foul-mouthed until her last breath (she often wore a shirt that read “No One Knows I’m a Lesbian.”) She was a larger-than-life character known for her unapologetic sexual appetite and outrageous parties (often attended by friends Lorraine Hansberry and Larry Kramer.) But most of all, for her extraordinary, decades-long love with partner Thea Spyer that resulted in the Supreme Court decision we all know to this day.”
Milch will executive produce with Parsons and Spiewak through That’s Wonderful Productions as part of its overall deal with WBTV, along with Alissa Norby, and Nancy Tate via Surfergirl Entertainment. Judith Kasen-Windsor will co-executive produce throught the Judith M. Kasen-Windsor Trust. Alison Mo Massey will serve as producer for That’s Wonderful. Warner Bros. TV is the studio.
A Wild and Precious Life, written by Windsor with Joshua Lyon, was published by Macmillan in 2019.
Windsor became internationally famous when she sued the U.S. government, seeking federal recognition for her marriage to Thea Spyer, her partner of more than four decades. The Supreme Court ruled in Edie’s favor, a landmark victory that set the stage for full marriage equality in the US. Beloved by the LGBTQ community, Edie embraced her new role as an icon; she had already been living an extraordinary and groundbreaking life for decades. In this memoir, which she began before passing away in 2017 and completed by her co-writer, Edie recounts her childhood in Philadelphia, her realization that she was a lesbian, and her active social life in Greenwich Village’s electrifying underground gay scene during the 1950s. Edie was also one of a select group of trailblazing women in computing, working her way up the ladder at IBM and achieving their highest technical ranking while developing software. In the early 1960s Edie met Thea, an expat from a Dutch Jewish family that fled the Nazis, and a widely respected clinical psychologist. Their partnership lasted 44 years, until Thea died in 2009. Edie found love again, marrying Judith Kasen-Windsor in 2016.
Milch is currently developing We Keep The Dead Close for Apple and Icon for FBC. He previously was an executive producer on Apple TV’s The Morning Show and developed Mafiosa with Berlanti Productions and Appian Way for Warner Bros. Milch wrote the pilot Bad Decisions Playlist for Fox and 20th with Temple Hill producing, was a co-showrunner on Girlfriend’s Guide To Divorce with Marti Noxon, and an executive producer on The Arrangement. Milch is repped by RBEL, Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP and Echo Lake.
Currently, TWP produces the Fox comedy Call Me Kat, now in its third season alongside Sad Clown Productions and BBC Worldwide starring Mayim Bialik. TWP also produced Ryan O’Connell’s Netflix comedy Special, which received four Emmy nominations. Additionally, Parsons and Spiewak serve as executive producers on the hit CBS sitcom Young Sheldon. On the feature side, TWP is set to release Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies with Focus Features this December, based on the lauded memoir by Michael Ausiello. That’s Wonderful is repped by CAA, Principal and Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown.
The Judith M. Kasen-Windsor Trust is repped by George Sheanshang.
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