Freeform Greenlights ‘Motherland’ Pilot From ‘Claws’ Creator, Sets Joss Whedon-EP’d Comedy For Development
June 5, 2018
Freeform Greenlights ‘Motherland’ Pilot From ‘Claws’ Creator, Sets Joss Whedon-EP’d Comedy For Development
Freeform has given a pilot order to Motherland, an hourlong military fantasy drama from Claws creator Eliot Laurence and Gary Sanchez Productions. The news came during an event in New York today, when the network also said it was working on a dark comedy with the working title of Pippa Smith: Grown-Up Detective executive produced by Joss Whedon.
Motherland, from Freeform Studio and Gary Sanchez Productions, was originally put in development in August 2016. The logline: Set in an alternate America where witches ended their persecution 300 years ago by cutting a deal with the U.S. government to fight for their country, the series follows three young women from basic training in combat magic into early deployment at Fort Salem. In this world, the traditional roles of gender and power are flipped with the more dominant women on the front lines fighting looming terrorist threats that are familiar to our world, but with tactics and weapons supernatural.
Gary Sanchez’s Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Kevin Messick are executive producers on the pilot, which Steve Adelson is aboard to direct.
The unveiling of a fantasy drama pilot comes a day after Freeform said it was ending Shadowhunters after its current third season. The network ordered two extra episodes that will wrap the story, with the expanded 12-episode final season (dubbed Shadowhunters: The Final Hunt) set to air in spring 2019.
Pippa Smith, meanwhile, from Electus’ Big Breakfast is a half-hour comedy created by Siobhan Thompson and Rebecca Drysdale. It follows Pippa, a twentysomething former kid sleuth, as she deals with relationships, addiction and being too dang old for the detecting game. Each episode she solves a new case, while unraveling a bigger mystery and attempting to navigate a messy personal life.
Whedon and Drysdale are executive producers, while Thompson is a co-executive producer. Drew Buckley, Jillian Vogel and Sam Reich are executive producers for Big Breakfast.