EXCLUSIVE: Daytime Emmy Award winner Tyra Banks (America’s Next Top Model) has signed on for a role in Treehouse Pictures’ remake of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, which is heading into production in Los Angeles in July.
The original 1991 film, from director Stephen Herek, follows Sue Ellen “Swell” Crandell (Christina Applegate), a 17-year-old forced to take care of her four younger siblings, after the babysitter hired by her mother dies, while she’s out of town. While the Warner Bros. comedy also starring Joanna Cassidy, Keith Coogan, John Getz and Josh Charles didn’t land as a major hit, either critically or commercially, upon its release, it has fostered a cult following in the decades since.
Treehouse’s remake is billed as a present-day retelling centered on a Black family. Banks will play Cassidy’s character, Rose—a fashion executive at General Apparel West, who takes a chance on Swell, by hiring her as her executive assistant. Bille Woodruff (Yellowjackets) is directing from a script by Chuck Hayward (WandaVision). Treehouse’s Justin Nappi and Juliet Berman will produce alongside Oren Segal. Juliana Maio and Tova Laiter will exec produce alongside the original film’s EP, Michael Phillips.
Banks is a television personality, model, businesswoman, producer, actress and writer perhaps best known as the creator and longtime host of the competition series, America’s Next Top Model. Over the years, she has also hosted such series as The Tyra Banks Show, America’s Got Talent and Dancing with the Stars, among others. She’s also previously appeared on such series as Insecure, Black-ish, Glee, Shake It Up, Gossip Girl and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, to name a few. Notable film credits include Tropic Thunder, Eight Crazy Nights, Coyote Ugly and Love & Basketball.
Banks is represented by UTA, Management Production Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller.
