‘Practical Magic’ Prequel Series Is In Development With HBO
The movie Practical Magic has become a cult classic among witchy types and muggles alike. Now, HBO is set on developing a prequel series that delves further into the lives of the Owens women.
When Practical Magic was released in 1998, it became a huge hit. Starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as Sally and Gillian Owens respectively, the stellar cast was rounded out with Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Aidan Quinn, and Goran Visnjic. One of Sally’s daughters was also played by Evan Rachel Wood, who HBO fans of Dolores in Westworld will also be familiar with.
The premise of the magical story was that all of the Owens women were unlucky in love. This was a result of a curse placed on them by one of their ancestors. While Sally and Gillian fight the curse in their own ways, they both eventually fall hard for men — one of which dies and one of which helps them to break the curse.
As a result of the rich backstory in Practical Magic, there is certainly of a lot to mine regarding the Owens family and the origin of the curse laid down by Maria Owens.
Witchy 1990s classic Practical Magic may get a prequel series at HBO Max https://t.co/FFIAgxutBZ pic.twitter.com/jeS6qvjaNm
— io9 (@io9) August 19, 2019
According to Entertainment Weekly, the new Practical Magical prequel series is called Rules of Magic, and will follow the lives of Franny and Jet during the 1960s. In the original movie, Franny and Jet are better known as Sally and Gillian’s eccentric aunts and were played by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest respectively.
In this new series, which HBO has already greenlit for production, Franny and Jet’s story will be explored as they “become feared and revered.” In addition, their brother, Vincent, will be introduced and leave the sisters with an “unexpected legacy.”
The pilot episode will be based on the books Rules of Magic and Practical Magic, both of which are written by Alice Hoffman. Melissa Rosenberg and Dana Baratta will act as showrunners on Rules of Magic.
As yet, this new prequel series has been greenlit by HBO but only in a pilot episode form. So, much like the Game of Thrones prequel series which has just been filmed, there is no confirmation that the pilot will automatically go ahead into a TV series. This means that fans of the original Practical Magic movie will have to wait until after the pilot is filmed and viewed by HBO executives before getting totally excited about this new project.
