Netflix Nabs Darren Star & David Schulner’s Napa Valley Dramedy ‘Uncorked’ With Big Commitment
EXCLUSIVE: Emily In Paris creator Darren Star and New Amsterdam creator David Schulner have teamed for Uncorked, a half-hour, single-camera dramedy that has landed at Netflix with a script-to-series commitment, sources tell Deadline.
Details of the premise are being kept under wraps, but I hear the series is set in Napa Valley and, like many of Star’s series, has a female lead.
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Star and Schulner are co-writing and executive producing Uncorked through Universal Television, part of Universal Studio Group, where Star has an overall and Schulner a first-look deal.
The duo recently pitched the show, which had five buyers pursuing it in a competitive situation, I hear. Uncorked ultimately landed at Netflix, home of Star’s rom-com hit Emily In Paris, with a significant script-to-series commitment.
Reps for Netflix and Universal TV declined comment.
This is one of two projects Star took out in January under the multi-year overall deal at Universal Television he signed last spring. The other, Climbing in Heels, an hourlong adaptation of Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas’ upcoming novel which he is co-writing with her, stayed at NBCUniversal with a similarly big script-to-series commitment at the company’s streamer Peacock.
The news of Uncorked’s sale comes appropriately during Premiere Napa Valley, a major annual trade event featuring wine testings, receptions and a big wine auction. The project reunites Star and Schulner after Star hired then-up-and-coming writer Schulner on his NBC dramedy series Miss Match over 20 years ago. It was Schulner’s third job in the business.
Schulner went on to create several series on his own, most recently medical drama New Amsterdam, which ran on NBC for five seasons and also had a run on Netflix in the U.S.
In addition to Emily In Paris, which is headed to its fifth season, Star’s cult TV Land comedy series Younger also is currently available on Netflix in the U.S. where it has found new audiences, spending weeks in the streamer’s U.S. Top 10. Also currently streaming on Netflix, where Star previously co-created and executive produced comedy series Uncoupled, is his Emmy-winning HBO comedy Sex and the City. Earlier in his career, Star created hits Beverly Hills, 90210 and spinoff Melrose Place.
Wine has had substantial on-screen presence on Star’s shows including an ongoing storyline involving the family Champagne estate of one of Emily In Paris‘ main characters, Camille. Meanwhile, Schulner has moonlighted as a sommelier.
Star is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham. Schulner is repped by UTA and Myman Greenspan Fox.
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