Bewitched is a beloved hallmark show recently referenced in Marvel’s Disney Plus series WandaVision. Perhaps it’s a mere coincidence, but Sony Pictures is in early development on a new adaptation of the classic sitcom, which starred Elizabeth Montgomery.
The series ran for eight seasons on ABC, from 1964 to 1972, and centered around Samantha (Montgomery), a witch who marries a mortal named Darrin (Dick York and later Dick Sargent) as she tries to live an ordinary life as a suburban housewife. Her extraordinary powers were often the source of causing chaotic situations, but they were also sometimes used to fix those same situations and others.
Bewitched was a defining example of genre television. Its spinoff, Tabitha – which focused on Samantha and Darren’s daughter – ran for one season.
The new film comes from producers John Davis and John Fox (Dolemite Is My Name, Game Night) with a script written by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett (12 Monkeys, MacGyver). Co-showrunner of CBS series Star Trek: Picard, Matalas, has an overall deal at CBS. The Bewitched creative quartet is also developing the Witch Mountain remake for Disney Plus.
This is not the first time Sony has adapted Bewitched into a feature. In 2005, the studio released Bewitched, a romantic-comedy from writer-director Nora Ephron, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell as actors playing Samantha and Darrin on a remake of the classic. It received mixed reviews from critics. Budgeted at $85 million, it achieved a worldwide gross of $131.4 million, considered disappointing.
More news to come as the Bewitched remake gets further along in the development stages. In the meantime, you can learn more about how Bewitched inspired an episode of WandaVision.
