Sony Pictures is making another Bewitched movie, one that will be closer to the original series. Bewitched starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, a witch who marries a mortal man named Darrin and tries her best to conceal her identity and leave her magical past behind. The series ran for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972 and became a defining piece of pop culture that has inspired numerous other projects in the subsequent years.
Following the success of other classic television series turned into feature films like The Addams Family, Starsky and Hutch, and Charlie's Angels, Sony Pictures brought the concept to film in Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell and directed by the late Nora Ephron in 2005. The film was a meta riff on the series as opposed to a traditional adaptation, where the film was about a group of producers making a new Bewitched television series who just happened to hire a real witch. The film received poor reviews and was a box-office bomb disappointment.
Now it appears that Sony is having another go at Bewitched, one closer to the original series. Deadline reports that a new Bewitched movie is in development from 12 Monkeys showrunners Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett. The new Betwiched film will follow the plot of the original series, with Samantha and her husband Darrin living a semi-ordinary life in the suburbs.
Due to the massive popularity of the original series, various Betwitched projects have been in development over the years. In 2014 Sony Pictures Television sold a pilot to NBC. In 2018 Black-ish creator Kenya Barris was developing a version of Bewitched focus on an interracial family at ABC yet no word has been made on the proposed series since Barris started his deal at Netflix. Sony now appears to be putting the focus on the feature film.
Despite being a series that aired in the '60s, Bewitched has remained popular due to its success in syndication and inspired countless pop culture references and parodies. It was most recently homaged on the Marvel Studios series WandaVision; the second episode, "Don't Touch that Dial," featured a Bewitched-style opening sequence. The central premise of WandaVision bore a similarity to Bewitched as it focused on a witch concealing her powers from the townspeople. Agatha Harkness's house in the series was even the same house used in the original Bewitched as a clever nod to the series and a way to hint at her true identity to the audience. It appears that WandaVision has generated more interest in the property, so it seems like now is the perfect time for a new Bewitched project.
Source: Deadline