EXCLUSIVE: HBO to Develop ‘Middlesex’ as One-Hour Series
Rita Wilson, playwright Donald Margulies exec producing
By Melissa Grego -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/6/2009 7:39:07 PM
HBO has optioned Jeffrey Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex and is developing a one-hour drama series based on the 2002 book.
Actor-producer Rita Wilson is executive producing, along with the project’s writer Donald Margulies.
The working logline for the potential drama series being used internally at HBO is that it "follows the life of Calliope Stephanides and the epic family history that may hold the answer to her complicated sexual identity."
Margulies, known best as a playwright, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his play Dinner With Friends, which was made into an HBO telefilm.
If the Middlesex drama series follows the book’s setting, it would take place largely in Detroit, where the main character grows up. HBO’s recent comedy series entry, Hung, is also set in the Detroit area.
HBO declined to comment.
Talkback
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Emphatically agreeing with the two previous comments. The probable audience for this series is going to be people who have either read the book directly or at least heard a great deal about it (won the Pulitzer and all that), so there is little point save that of topical censorship to treat Cal's gender identity as a "spoiler."
Not to mention, this elision of Cal's cumulative gender identity comes across as an insult to every inters-x and transgendered /man/ to whom this story has been recommended as relevant literature over the past few years. If the above summary is how the show is going to be publicized, then I anticipate that both B&C and HBO are going to receive much well-deserved criticism from those for whom these issues are not simply elements of fiction but inalienable facts of personal reality.
Also: S-x exists -- especially on television -- so why /is/ the word (and all words containing it) being blocked in comments?
Kagen Aurencz Zethmayr - 7/8/2009 6:17:13 AM EDT -
Furthermore, your comment screening robot would not allow my comment through because the term inters-xed and s-xual in the sense of "S-xual identity" were flagged as expletives. This is absolutely and totally ludicrious. By making terms like "s-xual" an expletive, you silence and censor genuine and ernest conversations on topics of human health and identity by deeming the words as "dirty". It is the context and not the word itself that renders them potentially "offensive." Adding to this, your article uses the same word in the body of its text. This is rendered all the more infuriating given the frank nature of the book and the broadcast history of the HBO network. Your censorship process infantilizes your readership and categorizes as obscene vital and complicated topics regarding gender and s-xual identity. Your attempt at journalistic integrity with regards to sensitivity and competency in the topics you cover and your engagement with your readership is a joke.
Jacklyn Lacey - 7/7/2009 12:30:46 PM EDT -
Please rephrase this article to reflect competently the issues which are dealt with in this book. The main character is a inters-xed individual who identifies as male in the framework of the book's narration and it is inappropriate to use the female pronoun as a result. The character also explores both his s-xual and gender identity through the course of the book. Relegating the experience of the character to an exploration of merely s-xual identity is incorrect and ignorant. Far, far too often are transgendered and inters-xed people relegated to intolerance and invisibility. This novel is perhaps the most famous work of literature with an inters-xed protagonist and you have completely missed this point by ham-handedly describing the character as a female exploring s-xual identity. Please correct this egregious error immediately before it is picked up by more media outlets. It is bad enough that the Huffington Post is directing readers to this incompetent article. If you need assistance in understanding the issues raised in the book or in how to rewrite this piece so it is less of an embarrassment to your organization, feel free to email me
Jacklyn Lacey - 7/7/2009 12:22:15 PM EDT
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