Fox Developing Dance Drama ‘The Cut’ Produced By McG

Nellie Andreeva

Updated 16 November 2016 at 7:17 pm

Fox, home of So You Think You Can Dance, is developing dance-themed drama series The Cut, from McG’s Wonderland Sound & Vision. The project, which has received a script commitment plus penalty, hails from 20th TV, where Wonderland is under an overall deal.

Written by Joe Sofranko & Lili Fuller, The Cut is described as Friday Night Lights meets Center Stage. It is an aspirational ensemble drama set in the Manhattan School of Dance, the most renowned dance conservatory in New York City. At the center is Anthony, a subway performer desperate to break free from his crime-ridden roots, who seizes the opportunity to join some of the most elite dance students in the world. With the support of an equally talented faculty, these dancers will search for identity, fall in love, and compete to become the best of the best… all while avoiding THE CUT.

Sofranko and Fuller executive produce with Wonderland’s McG, who started his career as a top music video director, and Mary Viola. Wonderland creative executive Jimmy Warden brought the project into the company.

This is the latest sale at Fox for Wonderland this season. The company also has an action drama written by David Shore, loosely based on the 1965 adventure series I Spy, which has a put pilot commitment, and single-camera comedy B Team, starring top Vine personality Andrew Bachelor aka King Bach and produced by Adam Devine, which has a script commitment plus penalty. In film, Wonderland is currently in post-production on Black List spec The Babysitter which McG directed, as well as the Devine-Alexandra Daddario comedy When We First Met (Netflix), directed by Ari Sandel. McG and Wonderland are repped by WME, Management 360 and Sloane Offer.

Fuller and Sofranko are writers, directors, producers, actors, and choreographers, best known for independently creating Complete Works, a comedy miniseries set in the world of a collegiate Shakespeare competition that premiered on Hulu in 2014. The series was inspired by Sofranko’s experience at the National Shakespeare Competition, which he won in high school out of over 16,000 competitors nationwide. Fuller and Sofranko first met as YoungArts winners, joining an elite group of past recipients including Kerry Washington and Viola Davis, and Sofranko went on to be recognized at the Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Both have also competed in and won in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella at Lincoln Center. Fuller has choreographed the winning group a record four consecutive times.

They are repped by Gersh, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and Derek Kroeger at Myman Greenspan.