EXCLUSIVE: Emily In Paris creator Darren Star and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas are set to co-write and executive produce a drama series for Universal Televison based on the latter film producer’s debut novel, Climbing in Heels. The studio preemptively bought the rights to the book which hits store shelves on April 29, 2025.
This marks the first high-profile project under the big multi-year deal Star signed with Universal Television in March. The drama is yet to be taken out to buyers.
Climbing in Heels follows the fictional rise of five ambitious secretaries navigating the glitzy world of 1980s Hollywood. The St. Martins Press novel offers a glimpse into the boys-will-be-boys club and the women who wanted a seat at a table where they were expected to serve, and who became very much like the monsters they worked for. Though fictional, the novel has echoes of Goldsmith-Thomas rise in Hollywood at William Morris Agency where she became a powerhouse agent representing Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Spike Lee and Nicholas Cage, among others. Goldsmith-Thomas served as SVP of both The William Morris Agency and International Creative Management.
In 2000, Goldsmith-Thomas transitioned to being a studio head, a writer and producer of such movies as Jennifer Lopez’s Maid in Manhattan and Julia Roberts’ Mona Lisa Smile. Today, she is Lopez’s producing partner and President of the actress and pop singer’s Nuyorican Productions where they’ve had such box office hits as Hustlers and streaming successes such as The Mother on Netflix.
Goldsmith-Thomas says, “I am thrilled to be partnering with Darren Star and Universal Television to bring life to these complicated, colorful women who refused to be sidelined or silenced.”
Star adds, “I’m excited to team up with Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas to bring Climbing in Heels – her addictive fictional account of Hollywood in the 1980s through a female lens – to the screen. It’s the ballsy and bawdy love child of Mad Men and Sex and the City. I can’t wait for audiences everywhere to meet this indomitable ensemble of female characters who broke all the rules to make their own.”
Star also created Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sex and the City, the latter of which won an Emmy for Best Comedy Series in 2001. His latest hit, Netflix’s Emily in Paris, has been renewed for a fifth season. Under his overall deal with Universal Television, Star develops and produces new series projects exclusively with the studio through his company, Darren Star Productions, for a variety of broadcast and streaming platforms.
Goldsmith-Thomas is repped by CAA and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof Fishman. Star is repped by UTA and attorney Sam Fischer at Ziffren Brittenham.
