Emma Roberts & Marci Klein Team With Candace Bushnell To Adapt Her ‘One Fifth Avenue’ Novel For TV

EXCLUSIVE: Emma Roberts and her Belletrist Productions, who are behind Hulu’s popular drama Tell Me Lies based on Carola Lovering’s book, are looking to bring another female-driven novel to television. Roberts and producer Marci Klein (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live) are developing One Fifth, a TV series adaptation of Candace Bushnell‘s novel One Fifth Avenue.

Originally published in 2008 by Hachette Books, One Fifth Avenue tells the story of the eponymous Art Deco skyscraper towering over one of Manhattan’s oldest and most historically hip neighborhoods — the sort of building you have to earn your way into — one way or another. For the women in One Fifth Avenue, this edifice is essential to the lives they’ve carefully established — or hope to establish. From the hedge fund king’s wife to the aging gossip columnist to the free-spirited actress (a recent refugee from L.A.), each person’s game plan for a rich life comes together under the soaring roof of this landmark building. 

Bushnell — whose column and subsequent book Sex and the City were turned into the Emmy-winning HBO series and its current Max sequel, And Just Like That…, will be adapting her book and will executive produce. Klein will executive produce under her Marci Klein Productions banner; Roberts and Belletrist Productions co-founder Karah Preiss will also executive produce.

There is a possibility for Roberts to also act in the project, which is being shopped.

“Candace Bushnell is a cultural force to be reckoned with,” Klein, Roberts and Preiss said in a statement. “She is creatively responsible for the single most influential TV series and characters of the last 25 years and we could not be more excited to be partnering with her on what we know will be the next great drama series about New York Society and all of its mishegoss.” 

A series adaptation of One Fifth Avenue was previously in the works at ABC during the 2011-12 development season from Gossip Girl’s Josh Safran and producer Mark Gordon.

“I’m so excited to be working with producers Marci Klein, Emma Roberts & Karah Preiss to bring my favorite novel to the small screen,” Bushnell said. “One Fifth Avenue is a contemporary look at the upstairs/downstairs world of high-stakes real estate, tech bro billionaires, old guard society, new guard upstarts, wannabes and busy bees in our modern Gilded Age. We can’t wait to start world building in one of the most iconic buildings in Manhattan, One Fifth Avenue.” 

Klein is repped by CAA and Peter Grant at Grubman Shire. Roberts is repped by CAA and Sweeney Entertainment. Bushnell is repped by Sugar23 and Heather Schroder of Compass Literary.