— Fiction —

Lifetime: Television For Women Original Movies in Development for Fall/Spring 2006/2007

NOT WITHOUT MY OTHER DAUGHTER

(Sally Field, Alfred Molina, Chuck Norris)

The long-awaited sequel to Not Without My Daughter, in which Betty Mahmoody (Field) discovers she has another daughter and must return to Iran to rescue her. Her sinister husband (Molina) tries to thwart her attempts, but Betty meets a rugged ex-Special Forces agent (Norris) who agrees to break all the rules to help her.

YOU DON’T OWN ME

(Meredith Baxter-Birney, Steven Bauer, Kate Mulgrew, Gary Sandy)

A battered wife (Baxter-Birney) exacts revenge on her abusive husband (Bauer) with the business end of a revolver. A fellow abused-woman (Mulgrew) acts as her attorney in the ensuing trial. But when a nefarious D.A. (Sandy) tries to indict her, he raises some startling questions about her behavior which brings doubt on the veracity of her testimony.

THE HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTESS

(Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, Antonio Banderas)

The owner of a chic N.Y.C. restaurant (Griffith) has never been married and is being romanced by the dashing head of a large restaurant corporation (Johnson), who wants to turn her hip bistro into a nationwide chain of theme restaurants. A lowly but handsome line cook (Banderas) becomes suspicious and while trying to help his boss, he finds himself falling in love with her.

DARK HORSE: THE KATIE WEXLER STORY

(Kristen Johnson, Verne Troyer, Scott Glenn, Terrence Stamp)

Hoping to fulfill the dying wish of her father (Stamp), Katie Wexler (Johnson) embarks upon a journey to become a professional jockey. She must overcome adversity, ridicule, sexism, and height discrimination to realize her dream. With the help of a recovering alcoholic horse-trainer (Glenn), the story follows Wexler to her groundbreaking debut at the Preakness, where she is pitted against the most successful jockey of the era (Troyer).

LOVE, HONOR, AND PERISH

(Valerie Bertinelli, Nancy McKeon, Richard Grieco, Dabney Coleman, Dustin Diamond)

When her sister, (McKeon) dies in a suspicious accident on her honeymoon, a Chicago schoolteacher (Bertinelli) is drawn into intrigue and deception as she trails her brother-in-law across the country as he prepares to remarry and—it seems—murder again. No one is willing to believe her, however, except a cranky, retired Chicago cop (Coleman) and a spunky journalist (Diamond). (Pilot for Meg Griffith: P.I.)

SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING DEAD

(Valerie Bertinelli, Melina Kanakaredes, Costas Mandylor, Dabney Coleman, Dustin Diamond)

Meg Griffith (Bertinelli) returns as a Chicago schoolteacher who is drawn into a murder case after her best friend (Kanakaredes) is killed at her wedding reception. With the help of a cranky, retired Chicago cop (Coleman) and a spunky journalist (Diamond) she begins to solve the puzzle of a mysterious international playboy (Mandylor). (Alternate title: Meg Griffith Returns.)

I DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM

(Meredith Baxter-Birney, Michael Moriarty, Lorraine Toussaint)

A divorced empty-nester (Baxter-Birney) spirals out-of-control on an alcoholic bender and refuses to accept help, until a kindly ex-Priest (Moriarty) and a substance-abuse counselor (Toussaint) offer friendship and the means to cope and face menopause.

EXPELLED, PREGNANT AND GOING TO JAIL

(Annie Potts, Mena Suvari, Michael Dorn, Steve Guttenberg)

A long-suffering alcoholic single mother (Potts) must confront the hardships of the legal system and face her demons after her high-school daughter (Suvari) falls in with the wrong crowd, gets pregnant and is convicted of armed robbery. Aided by a widowed, recovering alcoholic attorney (Guttenberg), she goes up against the school board and an unsympathetic principal (Dorn) and joins A.A.

THE PRINCESS AND THE ASTROPHYSICIST

(Tori Spelling, William Fitchner, Anthony Zerbe)

Remake of the 1981 film, The Princess and the Cabbie is updated as a spoiled snotty Park Avenue heiress (Spelling) learns tolerance, understanding and quantum chromodynamics as she overcomes her dyslexia with the help of a wisecracking quadriplegic astrophysicist (Fitchner) employed by her beleaguered, widowed, multinational industrialist father (Zerbe).

HERE DIES THE BRIDE

(Valerie Bertinelli, Danielle Brisebrois, Scott Baio, Dabney Coleman, Dustin Diamond)

When Chicago schoolteacher Meg Griffiths (Bertinelli) witnesses a close friend (Brisebois) die at the rehearsal dinner a week before her wedding, Meg suspects the rakish fiancé (Baio) of foul play, but no one believes her. No one except a cranky, retired Chicago cop (Coleman) and a scrappy journalist (Diamond). Together they try to solve the crime. (Original tile, Chicken Or Death?)

G-STRING SOCCER MOMS

(Barbara Eden, Victoria Principal, Marilu Henner, Anne Archer, Joanna Cassidy)

Five small-town, middle-aged, recently divorced, recovering alcoholic Texas housewives vow to put some spice back into their lives by going to work at a Dallas gentleman’s club. Controversy unfurls as the town learns of their antics and both civic and church leaders ostracize them. But when the financially troubled high school needs to pay back taxes or face closing, these hot suburban moms take it off for charity and the town learns a valuable lesson in tolerance and lap-dancing.