‘Sweet Valley High’: CW Developing New TV Adaptation Of Popular Late 90s Show

CW is developing a new TV adaptation of the popular late 80s to early 2000’s young adult book series “Sweet Valley High” by Francine Pascal.

Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who previously turned the “Gossip Girl” books into a hit series for the CW network (and now for HBO Max), are the executive producers of the upcoming reboot. The script is being written by “Gossip Girl” reboot scribe and producer Ashley Wigfield, Deadline reported.

The “Sweet Valley High” TV series aired in syndication from 1994 to 1997 before moving to UPN for its fourth and final season in 1998.

The teen-themed TV show was based on the book series, which numbered up to 181 releases between 1983 and 2003 starring real-life twins Brittany Daniel and Cynthia Daniel.

The logline for the upcoming series as shared by TVLine reads: “Sweet Valley is the town everyone dreams of growing up in. And there’s no better example of that promise than Elizabeth Wakefield. But when her missing twin sister Jessica miraculously returns, it reignites a lifelong rivalry.

"It falls to new girl Enid Ruiz to discover that someone (or something) is pulling all the strings, but can she convince the twins that putting their personal war aside is the only way to drag Sweet Valley’s dark roots into the California sunshine?”

A film adaptation was previously planned for the series and Diablo Cody was once tapped to write the script, according to Deadline. In 2017, Paramount Pictures hired Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith and Harper Dill to co-write a feature adaptation with Chernin Entertainment as producer.

Although Pascal was attributed the author of the 181 books of the series, there were a number of uncredited authors of the books similar to the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew novel series, Deadline said.

The “Sweet Valley High” reboot is a co-production of new ViacomCBS corporate siblings CBS Studios and Paramount TV Studios.

This also marks the fourth collaboration between Schwartz, Savage and Wigfield. Previously, Wigfield 'penned Hulu’s “Marvel’s Runaways” and “Looking For Alaska,” which were co-produced by the duo. More recently, the trio came together for the reboot of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot.