Hailee Steinfeld is becoming the latest feature film breakout to turn to the small screen.
The Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated actress will star as Emily Dickinson in scripted comedy Dickinson, which has been ordered straight to series at Apple.
The comedic series takes viewers into the world of Dickinson and explores the constraints of society, gender and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn't fit in to her own time through her imaginative point of view. Dickinson is described as Emily's coming-of-age story and one woman's fight to get her voice heard. The series is set in the 1800s and features a modern sensibility and tone.
Written by Alena Smith (The Affair, The Newsroom), Dickinson will be exec produced and directed by David Gordon Green (Stronger, Pineapple Express, Vice Principals). The series hails from Paul Lee's newly launched and CAA-backed Wiip, with Oscar winner Michael Sugar (Spotlight) and Ashley Zalta (Maniac) overseeing for Sugar23 Productions. Anonymous Content's Alex Goldstone and The Big C's Darlene Hunt will also exec produce.
For Steinfeld, this marks the Pitch Perfect 3, True Grit and Edge of Seventeen star's first TV series regular role. The singer-actress will next be seen as the female lead in Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, due Dec. 21. She's currently writing and recording her first full-length album. Steinfeld is repped by CAA and Hirsch Wallerstein. The pickup comes as YouTube is prepping a version of Edge of Seventeen ? with a new cast ? for the small screen.
Dickinson is the first Apple scripted series order for Lee's Wiip, which also has Catherine Zeta-Jones comedy Queen America and an untitled Cristiano Ronaldo soccer drama both set at Facebook. The company recently landed TV rights to Gimlet podcast Sandra. Wiip is a talent-driven studio that created and produces content for digital and global platforms overseen by the former ABC Entertainment president.
The series becomes the latest scripted entry from Steve Golin's Anonymous Content following True Detective, Mr. Robot, Berlin Station, The OA, Electric Dreams, 13 Reasons Why and The Alienist. Next up for the management and production company are Netflix's Maniac and Hulu's Catch-22.
Dickinson becomes the lastest straight-to-series order at Apple and joins a roster of scripted programming including Octavia Spencer drama Are You Sleeping, the untitled morning news drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, anthology Amazing Stories, animated comedy Central Park, a thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, a top-secret series from La La Land's Damien Chazelle, a Kristen Wiig comedy, Stephen Knight futuristic drama Seeand a space drama from Battlestar Galactica's Ron Moore. Still to be determined is just how Apple will distribute its scripted originals.
