Double Emmy Award Winning Writers Vicki Lutas and Anna McCleery to Pen the Philippa Fisher Pilot
Several years ago I was browsing through a bookstore looking at books for my oldest daughter, who is an avid reader, and I stumbled upon a book called Philippa Fisher and the Fairy Godsister by Liz Kessler. We really enjoyed reading the book together, and the other two books in series too, it became our special bonding time, cuddled up before bedtime reading as many pages as we could each night. She had so much fun and we became enthralled in discussions about the characters, the events in the series, and the highly imaginative fairy world Liz describes.
Fairies have been around for centuries woven into beloved stories we have all grown up on by C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, James M. Barrie and J.R.R. Tolkien. Fairies are prevalent in our everyday life, pop culture, fashion and even a child’s imaginative play. Yet Philippa Fisher brings forth a fresh take on fairies, that encompasses a futuristic, high tech powerful fairy world that humans are dependent upon in our modern world.
Fast forward to 2020 and my production company, Very Big World Entertainment, optioned the rights to the Philippa Fisher book series from Liz Kessler to develop it into a global franchise...beginning with entertainment.
The pilot is written by the double Emmy winning British writing team, Vicki Lutas and Anna McCleery. When I was at Netflix I was fortunate to work with Vicki and Anna on Free Rein, a series they created, wrote and Executive Produced for the streamer. They understand the teen demographic from the storylines and stakes that are important, to the engaging and nuanced dialogue that pulls you into the story and the characters’ worlds...as well as a touch of humor in just the right places.
Philippa Fisher is about a British teen in a new town struggling to live a normal teenage life who meets her rebellious fairy godsister, and the two are unwittingly drawn into a mysterious battle against a powerful dark magic that threatens both their worlds.
While the books target middle grade readers, we knew the Philippa Fisher characters and world, as we were imagining, was perfect for an often neglected demographic, the early teens and family co-viewing. Liz loved all our ideas to expand the world and introduce some new characters that raise the stakes and deepen the bonds!
Our hope is to create a show that engages teens as Buffy did in the 90s. Key to the Philippa Fisher series are the two strong female protagonists, high-tech magic that influences the human world, and a magic realm of powerful light and dark fairies too...but more than anything it is the incredible storyline about an epic friendship that will pull you in because it's flawed and crazy, and constantly pushes the boundaries of real life, fairy life and teen drama.
I am beyond excited to begin sharing the Philippa Fisher series.
