The author of Sex and the City is ready to enrich a new generation of women with a follow-up of her iconic novel coming to Paramount Television. The new novel, Is There Still Sex in the City?, penned by Candace Bushnell, dissects friendship, dating, and sex after 50 in New York City. Paramount Television and Bushnell have made it clear that the plot is not a direct follow-up to the lives of characters Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha.

Released in 1997, Bushnell’s Sex and the City novel was scooped up by show creator Darren Star to become a groundbreaking, award-winning and legendary series for HBO. Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, and Kim Cattrall, the show follows four friends as they navigate life and tackle relevant issues such as sexuality, promiscuity, and femininity. Sex and the City provided a platform for discussion of tough issues and relatability for its audience with each character providing their four very different, individual perspectives. The series ran on HBO from 1998 to 2004 and has been hailed as one of the series that made the network so successful. After its finale, the show hatched two feature films, Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2. Fans were disappointed to learn that the development of Sex and the City 3 was canceled. However, Bushnell is ready to offer a set of new topics for female friends to tackle in the development of a new series.

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According to EW, Paramount Television and Anonymous Content have landed the rights of Bushnell’s newest nonfiction novel. Set for an August release, the book puts the lives of women in their fifties under the microscope. Bushnell promises an honest depiction of women living in Manhattan who are dealing with Tinder dates, divorce, sex, and aging. The author said in a statement:

“It didn’t used to be this way. At one time, fifty something meant the beginning of retirement—working less, spending more time on your hobbies, with your friends, who like you were sliding into a more leisurely lifestyle.” In short, retirement age folks weren’t meant to do much of anything but get older and a bit heavier. They weren’t expected to exercise, start new business ventures, move to a different state, have casual sex with strangers, and start all over again. But this is exactly what the lives of a lot of fifty- and sixty something women look like today and I’m thrilled to be reflecting the rich, complexity of their reality on the page and now on the screen.”

Is There Still Sex in the City? is in the hands of executive producer Liza Chasin, Robyn Meisinger, and Bushnell - and Bushnell has also penned the pilot script. The new series will be the fourth of Bushnell’s novels to adapt into a TV series after Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle, and The Carrie Diaries, which aired on the CW. As the series gets closer to production, more details will unravel, including the crucial casting choices of the leading ladies.

Sex and the City is still one of the most iconic and recognized series in the history of television. While the show broke down barriers for storytelling and walls for women, most of its success is due to the characters and the women who played them. Fans of Sex and the City may be skeptical of the new series without the narrations of Carrie Bradshaw, the squeals of Charlotte, the scorns of Miranda or the copulations of Samantha. It may be wise for Bushnell and team to provide a cameo or two of the original cast. After all, Sex and the City characters draw in a crowd which was displayed in the use of Carrie Bradshaw in a popular super bowl ad. But, with Bushnell the driving force, no doubt Is There Still Sex in the City? will find success and a fresh round of cosmopolitans.

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Source: EW