Kristen Wiig to Star in Apple Comedy Series From Reese Witherspoon (Exclusive)
The untitled 10-episode series is the tech giant's first half-hour comedy.
Kristen Wiig is returning to the small screen.
In a competitive situation with multiple outlets bidding, Apple has landed a 10-episode comedy series executive produced by and starring the Saturday Night Live grad. The project, inspired by Curtis Sittenfeld's upcoming short-story collection You Think It, I'll Say It and produced by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine banner, is the tech giant's first scripted comedy pickup.
Colleen McGuinness (30 Rock) created the series and serves as showrunner. She will exec produce alongside Witherspoon, her Hello Sunshine topper Lauren Neustadter and Wiig. Sittenfeld is on board as a consulting producer. A studio is not yet attached; the series is expected to be set up soon. (Apple does not own the show.)
For Wiig, the Apple show marks her return to television after seven seasons on NBC's Lorne Michaels-produced SNL, where she was a regular from 2005 to 2012 and earned three supporting actress in a comedy Emmy nominations. Since exiting the sketch series, Wiig has focused on features including Bridesmaids (for which she earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing the original screenplay), Downsizing, mother! and Ghostbusters, among others.
The Wiig vehicle is Apple's third series with Witherspoon and joins the untitled morning show drama in which she stars alongside Jennifer Aniston and Octavia Spencer entry Are You Sleeping. Hello Sunshine exec produces all three. Overall, the Wiig show is Apple's fifth overall scripted series and also joins the Steven Spielberg-produced Amazing Stories anthology and Ron Moore space drama See. The company is currently in a bidding war with HBO for J.J. Abrams' first script since Fringe. Still to be determined is just how Apple will roll out its scripted originals.
Wiig is repped by UTA and Jackoway Tyerman; Witherspoon, who recently scored a sizable payday for season two of HBO's Big Little Lies based on her salary from Apple, is with CAA, LBI Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson. Season two of Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning Big Little Lies, which Witherspoon exec produces and stars in, returns in 2019. McGuinness, whose credits include Netflix's Friends From College and NBC's About a Boy, is with WME and Hansen Jacobson.
