Reese Witherspoon Sells Divorce Drama to ABC

‘Fear the Walking Dead’ writer Meaghan Oppenheimer will pen the script for ‘Please Don’t Go.’

ABC is looking to Reese Witherspoon for a divorce drama.

The network has picked up a script for Please Don’t Go, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Created by Meaghan Oppenheimer (Fear the Walking Dead), the project follows the personal and professional life of a ruthless divorce attorney in Dallas. Raised in the trailer parks of Texas, she has left behind a life of struggle amid squalor, working her way into a corner office and mansion in Dallas’ most prestigious neighborhood. But beneath her facade of togetherness, she’s plagued by self-destructive tendencies and long-hidden family secrets that begin to unravel her life.

Oppenheimer will exec produce the ABC Studios entry alongside Witherspoon and her studio-based Pacific Standard topper Bruna Papandrea.

Please Don’t Go marks the latest sale this development season for Pacific Standard. The company also is readying a romantic mystery drama from Rob Long for ABC and is among the producers attached to HBO’s Big Little Lies, in which Witherspoon will star.

Oppenheimer (The Remains) is repped by CAA, Management 360 and Morris Yorn. Witherspoon is with CAA, LBI Entertainment and Hansen Jacobson.

Divorce comedies have been one of the bigger trends to emerge this development season as broadcasters look for the family dynamic that isn’t currently on the air. ABC is teaming with romance novelist Nicholas Sparks and super-producer Shonda Rhimes for two different divorce comedies. HBO, meanwhile, has Sarah Jessica Parker comedy series Divorce coming in 2016.

– THR