Reese Witherspoon Headlines ‘All Stars’ Comedy Series, Nabbed By Amazon With 2-Season Order From Hello Sunshine & Aline Brosh McKenna

EXCLUSIVE: In a major bidding war among top streamers, Amazon has landed All Stars, a half-hour comedy series starring and executive produced by Reese Witherspoon, with a big two-season straight-to-series order.

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The project comes from Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine, with the company’s Lauren Neustadter also executive producing. The Devil Wears Prada writer and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend co-creator Aline Brosh McKenna is creator and showrunner. She will direct the pilot and half of the episodes, and will executive produce the series through her Lean Machine banner.

All Stars follows a former cheerleader from Daytona Beach (Witherspoon) who cons her way across the pond to teach cheerleading at a school in coastal England and has to show a ragtag group of students – and herself – how to be All Stars. The concept for the series, which has a little bit of Ted Lasso vibe to it, was loosely inspired by Andrea Kulberg’s story as an American woman from the South who went to the UK to teach British teens about cheerleading.

This marks Witherspoon’s first comedy series starring vehicle, she made her foray into TV series with dramas Big Little Lies at HBO, which originated as a limited series, and The Morning Show at Apple TV+. Before those roles, Oscar winner Witherspoon was probably best known in TV for her guest starring stint on NBC’s hit comedy series Friends as Rachel’s (Jennifer Aniston) sister.

I hear Witherspoon has fulfilled her contractual commitment to The Morning Show, which is now wrapping production on its third season. Witherspoon’s current deal was for three seasons so her future on The Morning Show is unclear but All Stars doesn’t preclude her from exploring further involvement around the Apple TV+ series, sources tell Deadline.

At Amazon, Hello Sunshine is behind high-profile musical limited series Daisy Jones & The Six, which is slated for a tentpole Prime Video premiere in March 2023.

“We are beyond excited to continue our fantastic relationship with Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter with this one-of-a-kind comedy, All Stars!,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon and MGM Studios. “Aline Brosh McKenna’s pitch delivered it all—originality, an iconic lead character, and tons of fun! There is also a throughline of hope, perseverance, and being true to your authentic self that will resonate everywhere. We are over the moon to work with Reese, Lauren, Aline, and the Hello Sunshine team to bring this series to life for our global Prime Video audience.”

Witherspoon has earned four Emmy nominations to date, sharing in the 2017 Outstanding Limited Series win for Big Little Lies. She has landed acting Emmy noms for both her TV starring roles to date, The Morning Show and Big Little Lies.

Hello Sunshine, which puts women at the center of every story it takes on, has successfully brought a number of books to television with limited series such as Little Fires Everywhere at Hulu, From Scratch at Netflix as well as the upcoming The Last Thing He Told Me at Apple TV+.

In addition to The Morning Show, Hello Sunshine’s ongoing series include Surface, which was recently renewed for Season 2 by Apple TV+, anthology Truth Be Told, also at Apple, and the upcoming Tiny Beautiful Things at Hulu as well as music competition reality series My Kind of Country at Apple.

“I’ve been looking for a project that brought our Hello Sunshine mission to make women the heroes of their own stories to a younger generation for a long time. When I saw this story, I immediately knew this idea would do just that,” Witherspoon said. “The idea of watching an American woman coming to share the very American sport of cheerleading to a group of young women in the UK just made me so excited! I love that this show is filled with real heart, deep joy and the power of teamwork. I can’t wait to partner with the brilliant, hilarious, and talented Aline McKenna yet again to create a truly original comedic character, and with the team at Amazon whose passion for this project was unparalleled.”

Founded by Witherspoon, Hello Sunshine is now part of Candle Media. The company’s movie slate includes recent releases Something From Tiffany’s for Prime Video and Where the Crawdads Sing for Sony as well as the upcoming Your Place or Mine, starring Witherspoon, for Netflix, which was written and directed by Brosh McKenna. Hello Sunshine brought the concept for All Stars to her.

“Reese is my longtime hero and I’m so thrilled we got to go from making a movie together to this fantastic TV opportunity, brought to me by her and the iconic Lauren Neustadter,” Brosh McKenna said. “So excited to bring this world and these characters to life! The folks at Amazon have already been so enthusiastic and supportive, I’m very excited to join their roster of talent.”

Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine are repped by CAA and attorney Gretchen Rush of Hansen Jacobsen. Brosh McKenna is repped by CAA and attorney Ken Richman at Hansen Jacobsen.

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