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When the coming-of-age film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” was released in 2005, it quickly became a favorite among young audiences thanks to its thoughtful perspective on teenage issues and an impeccably cast ensemble of newcomers (Blake Lively in her first role and America Ferrera coming off of “Real Women Have Curves) and rising TV stars. In the years since, the movie’s cult has only grown, and when “Sisterhood” screened at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre last week in honor of its 20th anniversary, the theater was packed with devoted fans.

Director Ken Kwapis, actor Jenna Boyd, producer Christine Sacani, and executive producer Kira Davis participated in a post-screening Q&a and talked about the film’s making and legacy. Kwapis admitted that when he was first approached about directing “Sisterhood,” it didn’t sound like a promising job. “I was sent the script by Warner Bros. with a one-line description,...

Exclusive: Marsai Martin, who plays Diane Johnson in the hit ABC comedy Black-ish, has teamed with Walden Media to adapt Ingrid Law’s children’s fantasy novel Savvy as a TV series.

Martin’s Genius Entertainment, which has a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures, is developing the adaptation with The Chronicles of Narnia producer Walden Media.

The book, which was published in 2008 by Penguin Random House and Walden Media, tells the story of Mibs Beaumont, who is elated for her upcoming birthday. Not only does turning 13 officially make her a teenager, but in the Beaumont family, the 13th birthday is when Beaumonts discover their “savvy,” their own supernatural power. While Mibs’ grandfather can move mountains, and her brothers cause hurricanes and create electricity, her power, the ability to read minds, isn’t exactly the best thing when you’re a teenage girl.

Elizabeth Chandler, who wrote the screenplay for...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

Even Frances Hodgson Burnett’s happy endings come with a price. The beloved British author responsible for two of children literature’s most enduring classics was never precious about meting out “happily ever after” endings with some serious asterisks. Burnett didn’t dislike a happy ending so much as understand that even the most fantastical of plot twists — the long-missing father returns, compassion is cool, the savior was living next door the entire time — should exist in both a fairy tale world and one that looks very similar to the real one.

After all, Burnett’s heroes are mostly children who are skin-of-their-teeth survivors, young stars who overcome through both sheer force of will and the power of their big imaginations. There...

The Writers Guild of America has just announced the nominations for their annual awards for Best Screenplays (by writers who are guild signatories). That’s right, before you get nervous thinking that your favorite may have been left off the list, you must remember that the WGA is the group that is not all-inclusive and leaves out several of the top contenders each year due to them not being part of the guild or not following their very specific rules. For this reason, you won’t see Inside Out, The Hateful Eight, and Ex Machina in the Original Screenplay category or Room, Brooklyn, or Anomalisa in the Adapted screenplay category.

Taking a look at what’s left over for the nominations, we find many that were expected to make a showing, including Spotlight and Bridge of Spies for Original Screenplay, though they apparently had to sink to really low depths...

The Writers Guild of America announced some of its nominees for its 2015 awards on Thursday, including television, new media, and radio, and among the TV nominees are series both new and old, and all beloved.

In the comedy series category, freshman Netflix show "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" scored a nomination for best series, as well as an overall best new series nod. "The Last Man on Earth" also landed in that latter category, and was singled out for its pilot episode writing, too.

On the drama side of the equation, lauded "Breaking Bad" spinoff "Better Call Saul" also got best series and best new series nominations, in addition to a an episode writing nod. Newly-minted Emmy winner "Game of Thrones" also scored a best drama citation, as well as an episodic writing nomination.

The full list of nominees released this week are below. Nominations in the theatrical and documentary categories will...

Lifetime is the latest network to order Bible-themed programming, announcing a miniseries adaptation of Anita Diamant’s bestselling novel, The Red Tent.

The two-night event stars Minnie Driver (About a Boy), Morena Baccarin (Homeland), Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen), Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones), and Will Tudor (Game of Thrones) in the expanded saga of Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, who was only briefly mentioned in the Old Testament. Production begins this month in Morocco.

Ferguson plays Dinah, who spends her formative years in her tribe’s red tent, a women-only sanctuary where...

Five hot new Young Adult novel titles have hit bookshelves today, not the least of which is Cassandra Clare's much-anticipated ending to her The Infernal Devices trilogy, Clockwork Princess! The Mortal Instruments fans are sure to be found with noses in books for the next day or two now that this title is officially available. See also: Take a look at these fifteen juicy new Ya book covers Two other sequels seeing release today are the final installment to Mary E. Pearson's The Jenna Fox Chronicles called Fox Forever, Sherrilyn Kenyon's fourth Chronicles of Nick book Inferno, and Elizabeth Chandler's Everafter, the final chapter in her long-running Kissed By an Angel series. Finally, Harper Teen has now released its latest gut-wrencher titl ,,,...

Surf's up at Fox. The network has given script orders to The Break, a drama set in the world of Santa Cruz surfing competitions, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. More TV Development News From Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants writer Elizabeth Chandler, the family drama is told through the eyes of Mia Walker, a 16-year-old girl with a troubled and mysterious past who is sent to the surfing town to live with the father she's never known. There, she must learn to navigate a culture that's as foreign to her as her father is. The ensemble drama

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Elizabeth Chandler ("A Little Princess") has been hired to pen the script for a film adaptation of Ingrid Law's 2008 young-adult fantasy book "Savvy" at Walden Media says Risky Biz Blog.

The story follows 12-year-old Mibs Beaumont who comes from a family that receive their own special power on their thirteenth birthday. When an accident puts her father in a coma two days before said birthday, Mibs takes off to help him and ends up on a wild adventure with her friends and siblings.

Denise Di Novi and Alison Greenspan will produce. Karen Janszen ("Dolphin Tale") previously worked on the script.

In the fourth installment of the ongoing series covering 2011’s television pilots, we’ll be covering the ever popular network, The CW. So before you disregard this article as being filled to the brim with thirty year old teenagers and more drama than you can shake an apathetic “What-everrrr” at, take a peek into next year and see what you might be missing in the future!

Betwixt (Drama)

Executive Producer: Elizabeth Chandler, Paul Stupin, Carol Barbee

Cast Includes: Allison Miller

Synopsis: Revolves around “changelings” in an urban setting who are responsible for saving humans from evil; based on novel of the same name.

Hellcats (Drama)

Executive Producer: Kevin Murphy, Tom Welling

Cast Includes: To Be Announced

Synopsis: Ensemble show set in the world of competitive college cheerleading; “Election” meets “Bring It On.”

Nikita (Drama)

Executive Producer: Craig Silverstein, McG, Peter Johnson

Cast Includes: Maggie Q, Shane West

Synopsis: Update of...

Heather Locklear can only do so much. With the fate of the struggling drama Melrose Place up in the air (and other CW dramas like The Beautiful Life are now dead and gone), the network has gone back to the drawing board and developed six new dramas for the 2010-11 season. Here are the CW’s fall pilot orders, many of which are still being cast (decisions on which projects will be ordered to series are typically made in the weeks leading up to the CW's presentation to advertisers, which occurs this May in New York. And remember, the network...

A week after greenlighting a new Nikita series along with a new family drama from the creator of Gilmore Girls, CW is back in action. The network gave presentation orders, a 7-10 minute mini-pilot, to both Hms and Hellcats while giving a full pilot order to Betwixt.

Hms will be set in the titular Harvard Medical School and will follow the lives (and loves) of a group of freshman as seen through the eyes of a female protagonist. Hms features some star power as Amy Holden Jones (Mystic Pizza) wrote the pilot script and Hayden Panettiere is a co-executive producer. Hellcats has the distinction of being produced by Tom Welling, in conjunction with Kevin Murphy who penned the script. According to THR, Hellcats will be set in the world of competitive cheerleading so it will have similarities to both Election and Bring it on Again. I fear cheerocracy as an...

Yet another teenage based tale of terror is coming to the CW television network, and we're starting to wonder ... doesn't scary shit happen to adults anymore? Or maybe we're just a little wiser and don't find ourselves in the stupid situations that today's youth do. One thing's for certain ... we won't be banging any sparkling vampires any time soon, that's for sure.

According to The Hollywood Reporter the CW has just greenlit a live action adaptation of Tara Bray Smith's novel Betwixt. Feature writer Elizabeth Chandler (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) has penned the script for the full film pilot and is executive producing with Paul Stupin (Make It or Break It).

Synopsis

For three teenagers dark mystery has always lurked at the corner of the eyes and the edge of sleep. Beautiful Morgan D'Amici wakes in her trailer park home with dirt and blood under her fingernails. Paintings come...

By Josef Adalian

The CW has greenlit three more pilots, including one produced by "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere and another from "Smallville" star Tom Welling. Panettiere's not attached to star (though, hmm, if "Heroes" bites the dust....?)

Today's pilot pickups:

CW

"Betwixt" (CBS TV Studio/Wbtv)

Writer/Ep: Elizabeth Chandler

Ep: Paul Stupin

Logline: Based on novel of the same name, “changelings” in an urban setting are responsible for saving humans from evil.

"Hm...

The CW went for star power behind the camera in its latest round of pilot pickups, ordering dramas produced by "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere and "Smallville" leading man Tom Welling.

The network on Tuesday greenlighted "HMS," "Hellcats" and "Betwixt," all from WBTV and CBS Studios.

"HMS" and "Hellcats" received presentation orders, while "Betwixt" will film a full pilot.

"HMS" is about the exploits of the sexy freshmen class at Harvard Medical School through the eyes of a young female student. "Mystic Pizza" writer Amy Holden Jones penned the script and is exec producing, with Panettiere serving as co-exec producer.

"Hellcats," an ensemble show set in world of competitive college cheerleading described as "Election" meets "Bring It On," was penned by Kevin Murphy who is exec producing with Welling.

Based on the novel of the same name, "Betwixt" revolves around "changelings" in an urban setting who are responsible for saving humans from evil.

Its Saturday and were back with another contest where you can win a set of great books! This weeks contest is Volturithemed and were testing your knowledge of the evil bunch. Were challenging you with five Volturirelated trivia questions and if you answer all correctly you could win a set of two books! This weeks contest is sponsored by Simon and Schuster and the books Dark Secrets 1 and Kissed By an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler. Read more about Dark Secrets 1 here and read more about Kissed By an Angel here.How Do I Enter?Simple! Weve provided 5 trivia questions that relate directly to the characters that comprise the Volturiguard in The Twilight Saga. Correctly answer and submit all 5 trivia questions and youre eligible! View the trivia questions here.What Do I Win? First Prize Three 3 first prize winners will receive a copy of Dark Secrets 1 and Kissed By an Angel.

Its Saturday and were back with another contest where you can win a set of great books! This weeks contest is Volturithemed and were testing your knowledge of the evil bunch. Were challenging you with five Volturirelated trivia questions and if you answer all correctly you could win a set of two books! This weeks contest is sponsored by Simon and Schuster and the books Dark Secrets 1 and Kissed By an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler. Read more about Dark Secrets 1 here and read more about Kissed By an Angel here nbsp Below are the prizes First Prize Three 3 first prize winners will receive a copy of Dark Secrets 1 and Kissed By an Angel. Contest Instructions Below youll find 5 trivia questions relating directly to the characters that comprise the Volturiguard in The Twilight Saga. Answer each trivia question below and send your entry to MiscellaneousTwilightersAnonymous.com1. Which Volturi leader does not have a special giftpower?...

Seen on: August 7, 2008

The players: Director: Sanaa Hamri, Writer: Elizabeth Chandler, Cast: America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, Jesse Williams

Facts of interest: Chandler also collaborated on the script for the first film.

The plot: "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" follows four best friends as their embark on the first year of college and the summer beyond.

Our quick thoughts: In 2005’s “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” four best girlfriends spent a summer apart but decided to stay connected by sharing a pair of old jeans that fit each one of them perfectly. Based on the acclaimed novel by Ann Brashares, the big-screen adaptation took four interesting characters and had them face several issues that eventually strengthened their bond and taught them a few valuable lessons about life and love.

Warner Bros. Pictures has given Ken Kwapis a License to Wed. The director, who helmed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for the studio, has signed on to direct the comedy, which is being produced by Mike Medavoy and Arnie Messer of Phoenix Pictures, Underground Films' Nick Osborne and Robert Simonds via his Robert Simonds Prods. shingle. The story centers on a priest/marriage counselor testing the strengths of one couple's relationship through a series of increasingly grueling tests during a marriage preparation course from hell. Kim Barker wrote the initial script, which was rewritten by Dan Fogelman. Elizabeth Chandler wrote the current script.

Opens Friday, April 4

While it shares its title with a Christina Aguilera tune, what "What a Girl Wants" really, really wants is to be "The Princess Diaries'" sassy sibling.

The only problem is, compared with that surprisingly successful fish-out-of-water fairy tale, the 2003 version looks more like the impoverished stepsister.

Its makers have been so busy running around trying to push all the preprogrammed buttons that the tender father-daughter theme at the picture's core seldom feels like anything more than another opportunity to alter the frantically changing pace.

Given the ardent following of the "Girl" in question -- namely former Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes -- the Warner Bros. Pictures release stands to do at least moderate tween business, but it's destined to fall short of joining the ranks of boxoffice royalty.

Very loosely based on the William Douglas Home play "The Reluctant Debutante", which was turned into the 1958 Vincente Minnelli-directed comedy of the same name starring Rex Harrison and Sandra Dee, the new edition has been considerably reworked.

Bynes is Daphne Reynolds, a seemingly all-American girl who has been brought up by her bohemian wedding-singer mother, Libby (a tune-carrying Kelly Preston), while the father she's never known happens to be a British lord (Colin Firth), whom her pregnant mom left back in London 17 years earlier because she was deemed inappropriate wife material by his aristocratic family.

Beguiled by Libby's bedtime stories surrounding that fabled past, Daphne one day impulsively hops a flight to London with plans to finally introduce herself to daddy.

Naturally, there are complications. Firth's Lord Henry Dashwood is not only in the midst of a high-stakes political campaign, but there's also the matter of his social-climbing fiancee (Anna Chancellor) and her snooty daughter (Christina Cole).

After a rough start, she and Daddy bond, and, while being groomed for her own coming-out party, she meets a sweet, young British musician with an angelic singing voice (newcomer Oliver James), who loves her for who she is, rather than the person she's trying so hard to become.

As he puts it, "Why fit in when you were born to stand out?"

Alas, that's a question the filmmakers themselves never really figure out.

Director Dennie Gordon ("Joe Dirt") and screenwriters Jenny Bicks ("Sex and the City") and Elizabeth Chandler ("A Little Princess") are so concerned with second-guessing what their targeted young female audience wants that the tone keeps hopscotching between goofy slapstick and forced poignancy.

And when neither mode seems to fit, the prevailing wisdom appears to be, "When in doubt, throw in another trying-on-clothing montage."

That scattershot approach extends to the acting styles, which are also all over the place. Providing something of an anchor is a convincing turn by the always reliable Firth ("Bridget Jones's Diary"), while Eileen Atkins ("Gosford Park", "The Hours"), strikes the right chord as Daphne's ally, the sympathetic Lady Jocelyn.

What a Girl Wants

Warner Bros Pictures

Warner Bros Pictures presents in association with Gaylord Films

A Di Novi Pictures/Gerber Pictures production

Credits:

Director: Dennie Gordon

Producers: Denise Di Novi, Bill Gerber, Hunt Lowry

Screenwriters: Jenny Bicks, Elizabeth Chandler

Executive producers: EK Gaylord II, Alison Greenspan, Casey La Scala

Director of photography: Andrew Dunn

Production designer: Michael Carlin

Editor: Charles McClelland

Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe

Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams

Music supervisor: Debra A Baum

Cast:

Daphne Reynolds: Amanda Bynes

Lord Henry Dashwood: Colin Firth

Libby Reynolds: Kelly Preston

Lady Jocelyn: Eileen Atkins

Glynnis: Anna Chancellor

Alastair Payne: Jonathan Pryce

Ian Wallace: Oliver James

Running time -- 104 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...