Another US pilot for Horgan's sitcom

American broadcasters are to have a second shot at adapting Sharon Horgan’s sitcom Pulling for the US market.

ABC has ordered a pilot script – with a penalty clause if it does not go into production – from Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who wrote the Cameron Diaz film Bad Teacher and who are also working on the third Ghosbusters movie.

The network previously developed their own version of the BBC Three series about three single thirtysomething women in 2009, but it did not get beyond the pilot.

Horgan and co-creator Dennis Kelly were executive producers on that project, as they will be again – but this time they will be much more closely involved, according to US TV industry website Deadline.

The original remake was the pair’s first venture into they US, but they now have more sway in Hollywood. Horgan has been working on other ABC shows, including another pilot called Bad Mom, while her stock in the UK is also rising thanks to the success of BBC Three’s Dead Boss, which she created, and Channel 4’s Bad Sugar, written by Peep Show duo Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and just commissioned for a full series.

Meanwhile, Kelly went on to co-write Matilda: The Musical with Tim Minchin.

To Horgan’s dismay, the BBC cancelled Pulling in 2009 after two series and one special – even though it was critically acclaimed. Yet last month she said she had got over her disappointment, telling an interviewer: ‘I really don't care any more that Pulling was cancelled. It was nice that it never had a chance to get shit.’

As well as the new version of Pulling, Eisenberg and Stupnitsky are also working on the pilot of Stephen Merchant’s planned HBO sitcom, Hello, Ladies.

Published: 18 Sep 2012