Not long after the announcement that a Friends reunion was coming to HBO Max, one of the show’s lead actors has booked another comedy gig. Courteney Cox has been tapped to lead Shining Vale , a horror-comedy pilot from Starz, according to Deadline .
The series was co-created by Divorce creator Sharon Horgan and Trial & Error co-creator Jeff Astrof. The comedy will be produced by Warner Bros. Television in association with Lionsgate, and Horgan and Astrof’s studios are also set to produce the project along with Kapital Entertainment. Shining Vale is based on an idea from Aaron Kaplan, and focuses on a dysfunctional family that moves from a big city to a small town and into a house in which horrible things have happened.
No one seems to notice the strange things happening in the house except for Pat, Cox’s character, who becomes convinced that she’s either depressed or possessed. Cox’s character is a famed author who rose to prominence by writing a women’s empowerment novel with pornographic overtones. The description for the series also suggests that Pat is a former “wild child.”
Almost two decades after the success of her novel, Pat is clean and sober but adrift. She has yet to write her second novel, and she’s no longer in an intimate relationship with her husband. She also has two teenage children that drive her crazy. Pat’s biggest misstep, though, was an affair she had with an artist/handyman/musician neighbor. It was the affair that led to Pat’s decision to move her family in an effort to save her marriage.
“As Starz continues to expand its slate of original comedy series, we are incredibly proud to bring a talented actress such as Courteney Cox to the network to topline Shining Vale . Her previous success in the genre combined with her well-honed comedic chops make her the ideal actor to bring Pat to life,” said Starz President and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch, who was apparently key to the project coming to Starz.
The new series is just one recently announced project featuring Cox. The other is the unscripted Friends reunion special that’s set to launch with the streaming service HBO Max in May. In the reunion special, Cox will be joined by the rest of the show’s original cast on the Warner Bros. lot where most of the show was filmed. During the special, the cast will share memories and personal details from the decade they spent filming the incredibly successful sitcom, per Today .
