Drew Barrymore & Timothy Olyphant To Star In ‘Santa Clarita Diet’

Santa Clarita Diet, a comedy series from creator Victor Fresco, is a go at Netflix with Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant set to star and executive produce. The single-camera show, from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Tracy Katsky’s Kapital-based KatCo, is set for 2017 debut on the Internet TV network. Netflix is producing.

In Santa Clarita Diet, Joel (Olyphant) and Sheila (Barrymore) are husband and wife realtors leading vaguely discontented lives in the L.A. suburb of Santa Clarita, until Sheila goes through a dramatic change sending both their lives down a road of death and destruction…but in a good way.

The project originated as a spec script written by Better Off Ted creator Fresco, which Katsky, a veteran comedy executive, got ahold of. Through her pod deal at Kapital, the project was sold to Netflix, which proceeded casting the leads, first securing former Justified star Olyphant and then Barrymore. A writers room for the series, which is expected to film up to 13 episodes, is up and running in preparation for a shoot slated to begin in mid-May.

Fresco, who will serve as showrunner, executive produces with Barrymore through her Flower Films banner, Olyphant, Kaplan, Katsky, and Flower Films’ Chris Miller and Ember Truesdell. Flower Films’ Nancy Juvonen is a producer. This marks KatCo’s first series order under the company’s deal with Kapital Entertainment.

Fresco and Netflix VP of original content Cindy Holland got into a quote repartee for the announcement.

Said Fresco: “The genius of casting Timothy and Drew, combined with my comedic… oh wait, that’s Cindy’s quote. I agree with what Cindy is about to say.”

Said Holland, “The genius casting of Timothy and Drew combined with Victor’s unique comedic sensibility will delight, and definitely surprise, our members around the world.”

Olyphant, who starred as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on FX drama Justified for six seasons, earning an Emmy nomination, recently recurred on the Fox comedy The Grinder. He is currently starring in Kenneth Lonergan’s off-Broadway play Hold On To Me Darling and will next be seen in in Gary Marshall’s romantic comedy Mother’s Day and Oliver Stone’s Snowden.

Barrymore, a Golden Globe Award and SAG Award winner for her role in HBO’s Grey Gardens, recently starred in Miss You Already and executive produced this spring’s comedy How To Be Single for Warner Bros.