Witches of Eastwick Coming to TV

Apparently lizard aliens aren't enough: ABC has also approved another adaptation of a big-hair 1980s moment – a television adaptation of the John Updike novel The Witches of Eastwick.

The series comes from Warner Bros., which also originated the film version. The series pilot will be written and executive produced by Maggie Friedman, who has worked on Dawson's Creek and prestige projects like Jack & Bobby and Once and Again. The essential story, based on the Updike novel and the 1987 movie, centers on three women who discover they have supernatural powers after a strange man moves to town.

It's been tried before. Fox developed a version of the show in 2002 starring Marcia Cross, Kelly Rutherford, and Lori Loughlin, but it didn't get past the pilot stage. The book had been converted into a big-box-office movie starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher, and Susan Sarandon, and was adapted into a musical in 2000.

Closely on the heels of the ABC announcement came news up Updike's death at 76. His last novel was The Widows of Eastwick, a sequel to Witches.