STARZ has greenlit an eight-episode series order for Shining Vale, a new horror comedy starring Golden Globe nominee Courteney Cox (Friends), Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner Greg Kinnear (The Stand) and Oscar winner Mira Sorvino (Hollywood).
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“Shining Vale is a smart, chilling and funny series that tells the story of a family in turmoil who is suddenly living with a paranormal who helps Courteney Cox’s character get her groove back as she starts to question her own sanity,” Christina Davis, STARZ President of Original Programming, said in a statement. “This group of talented actors, executive producers and director blends comedy and horror brilliantly throughout this series which exemplifies the network’s commitment to improve female representation on and off the screen.”
Co-created by Jeff Astrof (Trial & Error) and Sharon Horgan (Game Night), the series is a horror comedy centered around a dysfunctional family that moves from the city to a small town into a house where terrible atrocities may have taken place. No one seems to notice except for Pat, who’s convinced she’s either depressed or possessed – turns out, the symptoms are exactly the same. Pat is a former “wild child” who rose to fame by writing a raunchy, drug-and-alcohol-soaked women’s empowerment novel. 17 years later, Pat is clean and sober but totally unfulfilled.
She still hasn’t written her second novel, she can’t remember the last time she had sex with her husband, and her teenage kids are at that stage where they want you dead. She was a faithful wife until her one slip-up: a torrid affair with the hot, young handyman while Terry was at work. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, she and Terry cash in all their savings and move the family move from the “crazy” of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs that has a storied past of its own. Everyone has their demons, but for Pat Phelps, they may be real.
Alongside Cox, Kinnear and Sorvino, the cast for the series includes Merrin Dungey (Big Little Lies), Gus Birney (Dickinson) and Dylan Gage (PEN15). Cox stars as Patricia “Pat” Phelps, with Kinnear playing Terry Phelps, her ever-optimistic husband, whose patience and self-control will be tested like never before. Sorvino joins as Rosemary, who’s either Pat’s alter ego, a split personality or a demon trying to possess her. Dungey plays Kam, Pat’s book editor and oldest friend. Birney and Gage star as Pat and Terry’s teenage kids, Gaynor and Jake.
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The pilot for the series was directed and executive produced by Dearbhla Walsh (The Handmaid’s Tale), while the series itself is executive produced by Astrof via Other Shoe Productions, Horgan and Clelia Mountford (This Way Up) for Merman and Aaron Kaplan (The Chi) and Dana Honor (A Million Little Things) from Kapital Entertainment, with Cox attached as a producer. Shining Vale is produced by Warner Bros. Television and Lionsgate Television in association with Other Shoe Productions, Merman and Kapital Entertainment, with STARZ Senior Vice President of Original Programming Juan Alfonso overseeing for the network.
