Starz has put the half-hour drama Sweetbitter, based on Stephanie Danler's bestselling 2016 book, on fast-track development, Deadline reported. The project was written by Danler and is based on a pilot script developed by her and Stu Zicherman (The Americans) and Plan B Entertainment.
"It's a book that several of the women at Starz had read and were excited about," said Chris Albrecht, president and CEO. "When we heard it may be a project, I literally had some of my colleagues come and say this is one we've got to get; it plays into young female demographic but as we know women of all ages will certainly be attracted to great stories.... I read the material and thought 'OK, this one feels like something worth chasing'. Luckily (head of programming) Carmi Zlotnik and the team had a great creative meeting and convinced them that Starz was the home because there certainly were other places that would've been happy to finance and make this show."