Tina Brown Does Tom Wolfe for HBO

Zap2It.com | September 25, 2008

Tina Brown

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Ex-New Yorker editor developing show based on 'Charlotte Simmons'

The work of a great American novelist may make its way onto HBO, with a little help from former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown.

Brown, who signed a development deal with HBO earlier this year, and producer Bill Haber have begun developing a series based on Tom Wolfe's novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons." The two are in the process of finding a writer, Variety reports.

Published in 2004, "I Am Charlotte Simmons" chronicles the life of a smart but naive young girl from rural North Carolina who heads off to an elite college and gets her eyes opened to the sexual and psychological lives of the school's mostly wealthy students.

"I have always wanted to see 'Charlotte' brought to the screen in all her innocent vitality," Brown tells the trade paper.

The novel has been through the Hollywood mill a few times since its publication. It was optioned for a feature film in 2005, and earlier this year a version was in the works for director Liz Friedlander. HBO now owns the rights to the book.