It’s a good time for television. Not only is creativity at a high point, some famous movie names have been flocking to television over the last several years. On Monday, a new comedy project was lined up at NBC and it is set to topline none other than Susan Sarandon and her daughter, Eva Amurri Martino.
The project is rolling with the title Growing Ivy, and it will follow a mother and daughter who have opposite life philosophies. After growing up with a very free-spirited mother, a young professional named Ivy Davis (Amurri Martino) has been driven to be the opposite of her parent. She’s rigid and totally into working as hard as possible, but this has made her love life quite stale. In order to change things up a bit, Ivy will invite her mother to come live with her to work out their problems and give Ivy more confidence in her own life.
That actually sounds like more of a drama than a comedy, and it could go the route of dramedy, once we consider the people involved. According to Deadline, Amurri Martino is actually signed on to write as well as star in the series. Additionally, Celeste and Jesse Forever writer Will McCormack is also writing the pilot for Growing Ivy (it's not his only project in the works this season, though). McCormack and Rashida Jones are set to executive produce the drama, while Martino and Sarandon will co-executive produce.
This won’t be the first project Amurri Martino has starred in with her mother. Back in the day, the two appeared in an episode of Friends together and Amurri Martino even popped up in her mom’s film The Banger Sisters. More recently, the two co-starred opposite one another in a theatrical dramedy called Middle of Nowhere, which followed a studious daughter who is forced into selling drugs after her irresponsible mother uses her college fund to support her other daughter’s modeling career. The themes in that movie actually sound a little similar to what we might find should Growing Ivy make it to series, sans the drug selling, of course.
Things are already looking pretty good for the project. When NBC scooped Growing Ivy up, the network also promised a pilot commitment for the endeavor. Of course, that’s only half the battle. If Growing Ivy wants to make it to series, it will have to fight against the slew of new projects NBC has in development, and Growing Ivy isn't the only potential program with big names attached. Notably, NBC has a new TV project with Meg Ryan in development. Additional projects include a Remington Steele reboot and another project from writers Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael called The Mason Twins. It’ll be quite a while before we find out which of these projects will make it to series, but in the meantime, we’ll keep you updated on pilot casting news.
