Smiles, everyone, smiles! ABC is developing a gender-swapped “Fantasy Island,” giving a script order to a new adaptation of the hit 1970s series.
The new “Fantasy Island” will feature a woman in the place of Ricardo Montalban’s Mr. Roarke.
If it goes, the series will follow a brilliant, dynamic and sexy woman who runs a San Francisco-based company that provides clients with their most intimate, dark or outlandish fantasy.
The new project, from Sony Pictures Television, will be written and executive produced by “Up in the Air’s” Sheldon Turner. Turner’s partner Jennifer Klein will also act as an EP under their Sony-based Vendetta Productions banner. Josh Berman will serve as a supervising EP.
The original series, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984, starred Montalban as Mr. Roarke, the mysterious overseer of the island, with Herve Villechaize playing his sidekick Tattoo.
A revival of the series aired on ABC from 1998 to 1999, with Malcolm McDowell assuming the role of Roarke.