Universal TV And Jenna Bush Hager To Adapt ‘Black Candle Women’ Series With Carla Banks Waddles As Writer And EP

L to R: Jenna Bush-Hager, Diane Marie Brown’s ‘Black Candle Women',' Carla Banks Waddles

Universal Television is bringing Diane Marie Brown’s debut novel, Black Candle Women, to the small screen. The series adaptation is being produced under the banner of Jenna Bush Hager’s Thousand Voices, which has a first-look deal with Universal Studio Group. Hager has teamed up with Carla Banks Waddles, showrunner of Bel-Air, and Jenna Bans, creator of Good Girls, both of whom have overall deals with Universal Television (UTV), for the project.

Waddles is set to write and executive produce the adaptation, while Bans will executive produce with Casey Kyber, the Head of Television at Minnesota Logging Company, along with Hager and the President of Thousand Voices, Ben Spector.

Black Candle Women follows the lives of four generations of Montrose women, Augusta, Victoria, and Willow, who live together in a bungalow in California, keeping to themselves and practicing spells and tinctures. However, their quiet lives are disrupted when Nickie Montrose brings home a boy, and the family's curse, which causes the death of anyone they fall in love with, is revealed.

Brown expressed her excitement at the prospect of her book being adapted by such talented individuals, stating that she cannot wait to see the characters brought to life on the screen. Hager, who previously announced Black Candle Women as her pick for #ReadWithJenna in March, is equally thrilled to partner with Waddles to bring the Montrose women to viewers.

Since the foundation of #ReadWithJenna in March 2019, 36 of Hager’s book club selections have become New York Times bestsellers. Hager and Spector are developing and producing projects with Universal Television, Universal International Studios, UCP, and Universal Television Alternative Studio for various platforms, including Maame and The Feather Thief at Universal International Studios and The Many Daughters of Afong Moy and The Cloisters through UCP.

Waddles has written and produced over a dozen television shows, including That’s So Raven, Half & Half, Hit The Floor, and Good Girls. Meanwhile, Bans was the creator, executive producer, and showrunner on NBC’s drama Good Girls and has served as a writer/producer on various other series.

Brown is a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department and a professor at Orange Coast College. She holds a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.

The Creative Acquisitions and IP Management team of Universal Studio Group, led by Jordan Moblo, helped secure the rights to the novel.