Sarah Michelle Gellar to Star in New HBO Series
Sarah Michelle Gellar to Light Up the Small Screen Once Again
Star of ‘Buffy’ returns to TV with ‘The Wonderful Maladys’
By Isobel Scott
NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 9/29/08 – Buffy is back in business with HBO. The television network is working on a new series, “The Wonderful Maladys,” due to premiere next year, and Sarah Michelle Gellar has been chosen to play lead.
The plot centers around three grown-up siblings living together in New York. Left orphaned at a young age, they’ve parented each other into a tight trio of wacky flatmates.
Writer Charles Randolph counts among his previous screenplays “The Life of David Gale,” with Kate Winslet, and “The Interpreter,” starring Nicole Kidman. He wrote Gellar’s role in this new mini-series especially for her.
She’ll interpret one of the siblings, a woman with “a kind of zealous immaturity,” Randolph told Variety, “like a drug addict with a to-do list.”
The 31-year old actress has been largely absent from the small screen since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ended in 2003 after seven seasons (five on The WB and two on UPN). Her big-screen works include “Cruel Intentions,” in which she played a femme fatale villain, and a vast array of screamers, like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “The Grudge.” Fans of popular Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho are eagerly awaiting the adaptation of “Veronika Decides to Die,” with Gellar in the lead role, set for a 2009 release.
Although applauded for some of her movie performances, to most of her fans, Gellar has always been Buffy. This return to TV might be her chance to create a new long-term, evolving character.
The single-camera, 30-minute pilot will be shot early next year. If picked up, the actress will also be made co-executive producer of the series.
The identity of the other Wonderful Maladys has yet to be revealed. The concept of the show—quirky orphans living in New York—may not sound particularly original, but if anyone can imbue an otherwise cardboard character with depth, it’s Gellar. Ask any teenage vampire slayer.
