Hillary and Chelsea Clinton developing drama on YPJ militants for TV

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, via their HiddenLight production company, optioned author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's "The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice" for the small screen.

Tuesday January 26 2021 01:21 pm

Duvar English

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea Clinton have set their sights on their first scripted TV series, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Jan. 25.

The duo, via their Hidden Light Productions banner, has acquired TV rights to best-selling author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon's "The Daughters of Kobani: A Story of Rebellion, Courage, and Justice," which is about the all-female branch of the People's Protection Units (YPG). A network is not yet attached.

Set to be published Feb. 16 by Penguin Press, Daughters of Kobani is based on hundreds of hours of interviews and on-the-ground reporting about the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) who took on ISIS in Northern Syria and won.

"The Daughters of Kobani is an extraordinary account of brave, defiant women fighting for justice and equality," said former Secretary of State Clinton. "We created HiddenLight to celebrate heroes — sung and unsung alike — whose courage is too often overlooked, and we could not be more thrilled to bring this inspiring story to viewers around the world."

Lemmon is the author of two New York Times best-sellers, 2011's The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and 2015's Ashley's War. The latter title is being adapted by Universal Pictures and Reese Witherspoon's company as a feature film. Lemmon, an author, journalist and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has ties to HRC. In 2011, she penned the first Newsweek cover on the then-secretary of state's efforts to put women at the center of foreign policy.

The Clintons, alongside Sam Branson, launched HiddenLight Productions in December with a goal of creating documentary, unscripted and scripted content for film, TV and digital platforms that focuses on the human spirit. The company's first project is an event docuseries based on their 2019 best-seller, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience. It landed at Apple with a straight-to-series order following a bidding war.

HiddenLight is overseen by executive chair Roman Khanna and CEO Johnny Webb. The company has offices in London, New York and L.A.

HRC is also teaming with Steven Spielberg for a women's voting anthology in the works at The CW. She previously collaborated with Nanette Burstein for a four-part Hulu doc, Hillary, last year. The former first lady is also the subject of a potential Hulu drama based on Curtis Sittenfeld's best-seller, Rodham, which imagines a world in which she never met Bill Clinton. (HRC is not involved in the latter.)

Topics Hillary Clinton Chelsea Clinton YPG ISIS northern Syria