Horrorstor is dubbed a dramedy (a comedic drama) and the hour-long episodes will follow a young girl named Amy who, after celebrating her sobriety and working to get her life together, gets a job at a furniture store. All is well, until she finds out that the store has a supernatural element to it, selling customers products that prey on their desires and fantasies – sometimes in evil ways. The story is inspired by a supernatural mystery novel of the same name written by Grady Hendrix. Humorosly, the book is designed to look much like an IKEA store catalog. Hendrix will serve as a consultant on the project.
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According to Deadline, Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind) introduced Berman to the book and its potential to be translated into a series.
Schwartz penned the script along with Black List screenwriter Michael Vukadinovich, and has reunited with Gail Berman, who’s production group, The Jackal Group, is a co-venture with Fox Networks Group. Berman was president of entertainment at Fox at the time The O.C. was picked up, so had a large part in that decision.
The Jackal Group and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire will produce, while ABC Studios (parent to Fake Empire) will be the studio. Schwartz, Berman, Savage, and Kaufman will all executive produce along with David Borgenicht, CEO of Quirk Books, which published the Horrorstor book.
Schwartz, now 39, hasn’t been standing still since The O.C. went off the air in 2007. He has since written scripts that turned into two massively popular shows: Gossip Girl on the CW and Chuck on NBC. But it’s The O.C., a teen drama, that catapulted him to success, making him one of the youngest people ever to create a network series and run its production on a day-to-day basis.
