By JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter
Palisadian Reese Witherspoon and her producing partner Lauren Neustadter are executive producing a new series, “From Scratch” based on a best-selling memoir by Tembi Locke that came out earlier this year.
“Tembi’s memoir is a raw and tender exhibition of life in all its pieces. She brings you into her love, her loss and her resilience with such vulnerability and strength,” Witherspoon said in Deadline.
The new limited Netflix series based on a book “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home” selected by Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine in May, and Witherspoon and her partner will EP under the Hello Sunshine banner, according to Deadline.
Zoe Saldana (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avatar”) will star and executive produce the series while her sisters Cisely and Mariel will be co-producers. The author’s sister Attica Locke (“Empire,” “When They See Us”) is adapting the book and a showrunner. Other executive producers include Richard Abate, Jermaine Johnson and Will Rowbotham of 3 Arts Entertainment.
“We immediately fell for Attica and Tembi’s vision and feel honored to have the opportunity to help bring it to life onscreen,” continued Witherspoon. “We could not imagine more perfect partners for this than Zoe and her sisters and 3 Arts Entertainment, along with the incredible team at Netflix.”
“‘From Scratch’ is an autobiographical romance about an American woman who falls in love with a Sicilian man while studying abroad in Italy and then builds a life with him in the United States,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“When she unexpectedly loses him to illness, she is challenged to pull herself through grief so she can raise their daughter as they would have raised her together: with hope, joy and infinite love.”
Tembi is also an actress known for her work on “Eureka,” “Sliders,” and she has guest appearances on “Bones,” “Castle” and “The Mentalist.”
Netflix’s “limited series” usually run four to 10 episodes with a story arc and completed tale by the end. Witherspoon’s Book Club Instagram began in 2015 and her production company, Hello Sunshine, took over operations in 2017.
