HBO Max has given a pilot order to The Gordita Chronicles, a single-camera family comedy from Claudia Forestieri (Selena The Series, Good Trouble), Josh Berman (Drop Dead Diva) and his Osprey Productions, Zoe Saldana’s Cinestar Pictures, and Sony Pictures TV, where Berman’s Osprey Prods is under a deal.
Written by Forestieri, in The Gordita Chronicles, a willful, chubby, 12-year-old Dominican struggles to fit into hedonistic 1980s Miami as her family pursues the American dream.
Berman, Chris King and Jennifer Robinson executive produce for Osprey Productions. Zoe Saldana, Mariel Saldana and Cisely Saldana executive produce for Cinestar Pictures. Forestieri is co-executive producer. Sony Pictures TV is the studio.
The Gordita Chronicles has been on fast-track development at HBO Max since landing at the streamer for development in February.
Forestieri is a writer on Netflix’s Selena: The Series for Netflix and previously wrote on Freeform’s Good Trouble. A former producer for Telemundo’s L.A. affiliate, she earned five local Emmys and a GLAAD Media award for her work covering the Latino community. She is an alumnus of HBO’s Access Writing Fellowship, NALIP’s Latino Writers Lab and NBC’s Writers on the Verge program. Forestieri is repped by Paradigm and Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano.
Berman created the hit dramedy, Drop Dead Diva, which aired on Lifetime for six seasons. He also co-created The Mob Doctor for Fox and Notorious for ABC. His Osprey Prods. also has The Long Haul, a mother-daughter trucking drama with writer Katie Lovejoy, set at Fox with a script-to-series commitment, as well as a medical drama from The Good Doctor writer-producer David Renaud in development at ABC, a climate change drama Antarctica in the works at CBS and Vantage Point drama based on the movie in development at NBC. Additionally, Osprey has several streaming projects in development.
Saldana is next set to star in Jasmine McGlade’s drama Fencer and also will star and executive produce From Scratch, a limited series from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine for Netflix.
Source: Deadline
