Russian Doll co-creator swears her Netflix series wasn't inspired by Groundhog Day

TheWrap

The 1993 Bill Murray movie was considered a direct influence for the Natasha Lyonne-starring Russian Doll, but co-creator Leslye Headland says that's not the case. "To be quite honest, I never thought of Groundhog Day in the initial pitch," she tells The Wrap. "I thought of it much more as a funny Edge of Tomorrow. Like, it’s a video game. She’s not reliving the same day or the same night — she just has the same restart point. And because I’m a gamer, I kind of approached it that way. It was only when we were in the writers’ room that we started to understand that these scenes were going to be constructed — especially in the first three episodes — the way that Groundhog Day is constructed.” Headland adds that she doesn't mind the comparisons, joking that it would be like David Chase worrying about The Sopranos being compared to the Billy Crystal-Robert De Niro film Analyze This.