Starz develops novella, Dirty Girls Social Club

US premium cable network Starz is working to adapt Mexican telenovela and a best-selling novel from Alisa Valdes about six women living in New York.

The network is working with Televisa USA and Lionsgate (which will soon be its parent) on Teresa, which is about an undocumented but ruthless Latin woman making her way into the exclusive parts of Los Angeles; and Valdes, Ligiah Villalobos and Anne Thomopoulos on Dirty Girls Social Club.

Also in development is Pussy Valley, which looks into the world of a southern strip club called the Pink Pony.

Carlos Portugal, who co-created Hulu’s first original with a Latino cast, East Los High, is Teresa’s series creator and showrunner. He also helped to adapt Telemundo novella El Cuerpo del Deseo as Body of Desire for NBC.

The original Teresa went out on Televisa, the Mexican broadcast arm of Televisa USA parent Grupo Televisa, in 2010. That itself was a remake of a 1959 series.

Dirty Girls Social Club, meanwhile, will “explore womanhood in all its glory, with both humour and drama, and always with heart” by following six professional women who have known each other since college.

Villalobos (Under the Same Moon) is showrunner, with Thomopoulos (The Collection, Versailles) executive producer along with network exec Lucia Cottone.

Pussy Valley is set in a Mississippi ‘shake junt’ and will offer “an intimate window to the unexplored southern strip club world, where the desires of pro-ballers and politicians collide with the dreams of five brave women”.

Katori Hall (The Mountaintop) is creator and writer. She also executive producer along with Peter Chernin from Chernin Entertainment (New Girl), Jenno Topping (Spy) and Dante di Loreto (American Horror Story) are executive producers.