Ry Russo-Young walked away from the 2012 Sundance Festival with a Jury Prize for “Nobody Walks,” a feature she both wrote and directed, capping a string of relatively successful indie features. She starred in and co-wrote Joe Swanberg’s “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” wrote, directed and edited “Orphans,” and wrote, directed, edited and produced 2009’s “You Won’t Miss Me”…there’s no doubting the talents of this young filmmaker. Well, flash-forward just over a year and Russo-Young looks to be benefitting from that Sundance success.
Bravo have put a supernatural drama project into development which was written by Russo-Young and playwright Dorothy Fortenberry. “Witch Hunt” will be set in a reimagined New York City and will follow a single mother who lands a job at a leading cosmetics company only to discover that the company is actually just a cover for a coven of witches. That’s sadly all we know about it so far, so there’s no knowing how straight-faced it will play out.
The story’s tied up in a Deadline report that Bravo won’t be moving forward with the drama pilot “The Joneses,” based on the 2009 Demi Moore/David Duchovny movie of the same name, which had already been retooled for cable after being originally developed for ABC. Whether “Witch Hunt” is moving ahead thanks to the demise of that show or not, it’s good that an indie filmmaker is getting some small screen exposure, and as potentially campy as the concept sounds, we certainly wouldn’t bet against it becoming a success.
