Disney+ Orders "Mad Love": A Wedding-Planner Romance from Playwright Kate Cortesi
Disney+ has ordered a six-part romantic comedy-drama called "Mad Love" — a working title — created and written by playwright Kate Cortesi, according to The Hollywood Reporter (THR, 26 August 2026).
The series follows Maddy Caruso, a British wedding planner juggling an eclectic roster of clients in the Italian countryside. It is a U.K. Original commission for Disney+, meaning it was greenlit specifically for the streamer's British audience base rather than its U.S. parent market — a straight-to-series order, meaning no pilot episode is shot first to test the waters.
Production duties fall to Element Pictures, a Dublin-based company owned by the Fremantle group, alongside Sinestra. The executive producer roster is sizeable: Cortesi herself is credited, along with Christopher Aird, Chelsea Morgan Hoffmann, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe from Element Pictures, Michael Parets and Johan Renck from Sinestra, and Hilary Martin representing Fremantle (THR, 26 August 2026).
On the commissioning side, the order came from Angela Jain, head of content at Disney+ EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), alongside Lee Mason, vice president of scripted at Disney+ EMEA. Their involvement places "Mad Love" squarely within Disney+'s push to build locally originated scripted programming for its international subscribers — original shows commissioned outside the United States that sit alongside the platform's Marvel, Star Wars and family-brand library.
For Cortesi, "Mad Love" marks another television credit in a career that has straddled stage and screen. Based in Brooklyn and Boston and originally from Washington, D.C., she has written and sold original television pilots and series to Disney+, Fremantle and AMC, according to her personal website. Her play "TEN GRAND" had its world premiere in July 2026. Her writing spans dark comedy, drama and political material — a range that fits comfortably with a romantic comedy-drama that will likely blend tonal gears rather than sit in one.
No release date, cast announcements or production start have been confirmed. The series is in early development, and Disney+ has not publicly scheduled a premiere window.
What makes this stand out is the slot it fills. A six-episode wedding-planner romance set in rural Italy is the kind of mid-budget, character-driven scripted show that streaming platforms increasingly use to keep subscribers engaged between their blockbuster franchise launches. For the crew of writers, producers and production staff that a six-part series sustains, a greenlight like this is a full year of work — and for Cortesi, it is her most high-profile television order to date.
