Marc Cherry Sets Up Drama ‘Jenny Is A Weapon’ At Fox As ‘Desperate Housewives’ Creator Returns To Broadcast With Direct Network Deal

deadline.com:

Marc Cherry is returning to broadcast TV.The Desperate Housewives creator has struck a direct talent deal with Fox and has set up his first project at the network – psychic-fueled spy drama Jenny Is A Weapon.The project has landed a script commitment from the network and is being eyed for a potential straight-to-series order.It follows the story of a sheltered Maryland housewife who, at the moment her marriage falls apart, discovers she has special psychic powers and is recruited by a secret government agency where she will have to juggle her broken family and saving the world.Fox’s President of Entertainment Michael Thorn told Deadline that it’s the “unlikely story of a heroic housewife”.“It has the signature Marc Cherry 40-something female lead,” he added. “This is not a procedural, it’s not a classic franchise, but it’s one of the first things that he’s done that has an episodic engine underneath a really unique character drama.

It’s more like how the dead bodies were used in Six Feet Under than for a case of the week but we’re very excited for Marc Cherry to try something that has a case element.”It marks Cherry’s return to linear broadcast television, having made two seasons of Why Women Kill for CBS All Access/Paramount+ and Devious Maids for Lifetime after the end of the hit ABC soap in 2012.Jenny Is A Weapon comes from Fox Entertainment and Cherry is writing and exec producing the one-hour drama with Why Women Kill writer Joshua Michael Stern.

The story comes from Cherry, Stern, Ryan McPartlin and Travis Lively with the latter pair also exec producing alongside Mindy Schultheis and Michael Hanel.Fox’s Thorn added that the Cherry deal is part of its strategy to continue signing direct talent deals with creators.