Echo Lake Entertainment has optioned Melissa Gould’s memoir “Widowish” to develop it as a TV series, Variety has learned exclusively.
The book tells the story of Gould’s life after the unexpected death of her husband. Left to raise their adolescent daughter on her own, and act as if she could resume life without him by her side, Gould found that she didn’t fit the typical idea of widowhood or meet the expectations of mourning. She didn’t look like a widow or act like a widow, but she felt like one.
The book was an Amazon best-seller and one of BookAuthority’s picks for best grief book of all time. It has been featured in Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Katie Couric’s Wake-Up Call Newsletter, The Gabby Reece Show Podcast, SiriusXM’s Just Jenny show, and other media outlets including Good Morning America.
“’Widowish’ is equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious, and all based on Melissa’s real life,” said Mary Jane Skalski, Echo Lake’s president of production. “We immediately felt that her story would resonate with audiences who would want to watch and fall in love with the people and things she experienced.”
Gould is a former screenwriter, with credits that include “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” “Party of Five,” and “Lizze McGuire,” among others. Her essays on grief have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Hollywood Reporter, and Buzzfeed.
She is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment and DeFiroe & Company.
Echo Lake Entertainment’s current production slate includes “The Great” at Hulu, which recently debuted its third season. The company has also produced shows like “All the Bright Places” and “Oxygen” at Netflix, “Van Helsing” at Syfy, ” and “The Secrets We Keep,” which was distributed by Bleecker Street.