DEADLINE: Caitlin Doughty’s ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ In Works At Paramount TV
Paramount TV and Anonymous Content are developing Caitlin Doughty’s bestselling memoir Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons From The Crematory as a pilot and potential series, with Nurse Jackie co-creator Evan Dunsky attached as writer and showrunner. Anonymous Content’s Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Rosalie Swedlin and Alex Goldstone will serve as executive producers, and Doughty will serve as a consulting producer.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes takes a behind-the-scenes look at Caitlin Doughty, a twentysomething mortician with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre who takes a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters — both living and very dead — Caitlin learns to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased. Now a licensed mortician with an alternative funeral practice, Caitlin argues that our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead).
“Caitlin is one of the most original literary voices of our day, and we take great pride in collaborating with her to create a show that explores her unique perspective on death with the same humorous and engaging style that defines her memoir,” said Amy Powell, President of Paramount Television. “We are also thrilled to be partnering with Evan and Anonymous Content on this project. Evan is an enormous talent, and it was clear from the moment he met Caitlin they were kindred spirits who share the same vision and passion for bringing this book to television.”
Said Anonymous Content’s Kerry Kohansky-Roberts: “Caitlin’s honest, self-effacing humor had us hooked. We knew after the first read that we wanted to be involved in bringing her fascinating journey to television, and have found the perfect partners in Evan and Paramount.”
Doughty, a licensed funeral director in Los Angeles, is the host and creator of web series Ask A Mortician and the collective Order of the Good Death. She’s repped by Anna Sproul-Latimer of the Ross Yoon Agency and Jody Hotchkiss of Hotchkiss & Associates. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory is published by W.W. Norton & Company.