My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- The TV Show

[CrimsonTide4]

I have heard good things about this movie so I need to check it out.

My Big Fat Greek TV Show
Thu Sep 19, 5:25 PM ET
By Marcus Errico

The wedding might be over, but the honeymoon is still going strong.

CBS is moving forward with plans to turn this summer's feel-good indie smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding into a sitcom.

Like the movie, the TV Wedding story will star Nia Vardalos as Fotoula Portokalos, a Greek woman who begins dating a decidely non-Greek vegetarian to the chagrin of her old-school folks ( Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine, reprising their roles from the film) and daffy extended family.

The small-screen version had been in the works even before IFC released the movie back in April. However, CBS passed on the pilot and left the show off the fall schedule.

But $110 million in box office later can make a network reconsider in a big fat way. CBS has already committed to seven episodes and could bump up the order to 13, according to Hollywood trade reports.

Vardalos, who adapted the movie screenplay from her one-woman stage show, cowrote the TV pilot with tube vet Marsh McCall (Just Shoot Me). Vardalos and McCall are on board as executive producers of the CBS show with Vardalos' manager, Brad Gray, and Rita Wilson, whose love of the play is what launched Wedding's unlikely path to blockbuster.

The film, already one of the most profitable in Hollywood history, was made for $5 million and is on track to break The Blair Witch Project's $140 million gross, which is the current indie record.

When it comes to repackaging flicks into television shows, Hollywood has a mixed track record--for every M*A*S*H, Alice and Buffy, you get a Clueless, Private Benjamin or Ferris Bueller. Predictably, producers are confident they can translate Greek into a hit.

Gray tells Variety he pushed for the TV show because "it seemed like a wonderful CBS comedy. It seemed like it would complement their schedule very well. It has great warmth and is just very funny.

"It's become so popular around the country, it feels like there's even more potential and an audience that's been built around it," he says.

In addition to the the movie's Vardalos, Kazan and Constantine, Louis Mandylor will also return as brother Nick. In the pilot, the role of Foutoula's WASP-y fiancé is played by Steven Eckholdt, but the producers are reportedly trying to figure out how to bring back the film's John Corbett--a tricky prospect considering the former Sex and the City ( news - Y! TV) hunk is locked into the upcoming FX series Lucky Guy. No word if Andrea Martin and 'N Sync ( news - web sites)'s Joey Fatone, both of whom played quirky relatives in the film, will be back, either.

Wedding will most likely debut in early 2003 as a midseason replacment.