‘Birth Of The Pill’ Event Series With Denise DiNovi & R.J.Cutler In Works At Sonar
Sonar Entertainment has optioned the rights to Jonathan Eig’s nonfiction book The Birth Of The Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution for development as an event series for television, with Denise DiNovi and R.J. Cutler executive producing and Cutler set to to direct.
The Birth Of the Pill
revolves around four flawed, rebellious, larger than life characters racing against time, politics and ethics. They include feminist and social reformer Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States; philanthropist and suffragist Katharine McCormick, who used her family fortune to fund the research that led to the development of the pill; visionary biologist and researcher Gregory Goodwin Pincus, co-inventor of the first oral contraceptive; and John Rock, the Catholic obstetrician and gynecologist who fought to win public approval for the new drug.
“The incredibly complex real life characters who, from vastly different directions, worked together to change the course of sexual, cultural and political history will be shocking and surprising,” said DiNovi. “The world would not have been the same without The Pill.”
Audrey Wells (Guinevere, Under the Tuscan Sun) is writing the first episode of the event series, which she executive produces with DiNovi Productions’ Denise DiNovi (Crazy, Stupid Love), her producing partner Alison Greenspan (If I Stay), and R.J. Cutler .
“This vivid history of the little pill that changed the world is as engaging and gripping as the most suspenseful and dramatic work of fiction,” said Tom Patricia, EVP, Event Series, Sonar Entertainment. “An epic story of sexual politics, rebellion and scientific discovery, it is as relevant and timely today as it was when the actual events were unfolding..”
The Birth of the Pill was named a Chicago Tribune ‘Best Books of 2014′, a Washington Post ’50 Notable Works of Nonfiction & Best Science Books 2014’, a Chicago Tribune ‘Nonfiction Books to Gift 2014’, a Slate ‘Best Books 2014: Staff Picks’, and a Booklist ‘2014 Editor’s Choice’ & ‘Top 10 Science and Health Books of 2014.’
Eig, a former senior special reporter at the Wall Street Journal, authored Casey Award-winning Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (Simon & Schuster, 2005), Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season (Simon & Schuster, 2007), and Get Capone (Simon & Schuster, 2010). Eig is repped by APA on behalf of David Black and the David Black Agency.
Sonar’s current series includes The Shannara Chronicles for MTV, Taboo for FX and BBC One, and The Son for AMC.
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