Screenwriter Scott Moore (The Hangover, Bad Moms) has sold a novel — both to a publisher and to a TV studio for development.
MGM Television has optioned Moore’s debut novel, The Mad Widows, for development as a potential series. Suzanne Todd, who produced the two Bad Moms movies, will develop and executive produce the project under her first-look deal at the studio.
James Melia of Simon & Schuster’s imprint Gallery Books acquired the novel after a competitive auction; it’s scheduled to be published in March 2027. Following the sale, the book was shopped in Hollywood, with Todd coming aboard and the project landing at MGM TV for development.
The Mad Widows follows a group of women who become friends through a bereavement class, only to discover that one of their late husbands might not actually be dead. The revelation launches them into a reverse murder mystery as they race to determine whether he faked his death — while trying not to get killed themselves.
“Talking to my friends who are widows (I have more than one, terrible but true), it became clear there was one thing they all wished for: that their husband wasn’t actually dead,” said Moore. “So what if he wasn’t? How would that even work? The more I thought about a widow turning detective to find out, the more I wanted to write the story for them.”
Moore and Jon Lucas co-wrote The Hangover, and the pair wrote and directed Bad Moms and its sequel A Bad Moms Christmas. Their credits also include Office Christmas Party, the 2014 ABC series Mixology and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.
Moore is repped by UTA and Sloane Offer.