Kristen Stewart heads to TV with a new limited series playing Sally Ride. as Deadline reports that Stewart will make her series-starring debut in The Challenger. She’ll play the astronaut and physicist who became the first American woman to fly in space.
Kyra Sedgwick’s Big Swing Productions developed the project, which was later brought to Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners and Stewart’s Nevermind production label. Deadline also notes Amblin’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are attached as executive producers.
Maggie Cohn (American Crime Story, Narcos: Mexico) will write and serve as showrunner for the series based on Meredith E. Bagby’s book The New Guys. This series marks the first time Kristen Stewart has moved to television after decades of work in blockbuster and indie filmmaking.
One of the minds behind the series, Kyra Sedgwick, discusses this shift. “She has never done television, but when she read this, she became obsessed with telling the story of Sally Ride from her own unique perspective that I won’t even try to paraphrase because she is so eloquent about it,” Sedgwick said.
“She was so stunning in these pitch meetings, and that was a huge part of why it has been so competitive. She’s so compelling and was so rabid about telling this story about an American hero who had to hide who she was, in that time,” she adds. “Who better to play Sally Ride than one of the great actors of her generation? As they say in Hollywood, passion wins the day. Her passion for being an executive producer is vast. As dogged as we were about getting the script to her, she has been that dogged about getting it sold in the marketplace.”
