Fox Orders Pilot For Antarctica Comedy From ‘New Girl’ Creator Liz Meriwether
In her first development since creating New Girl, Liz Meriwether is co-writing and executive producing another female-centered single-camera comedy, Thin Ice, which has landed a pilot order at Fox.
Written by Meriwether, Ed Macdonald and Mark Grimmer, Thin Ice centers on a woman who reclaims her dreams when she finds herself at the end of the earth – in Antarctica – surrounded by a group of brilliant misfits.
“Fox has been and continues to be such a great home for me with New Girl,” Meriwether said. “And now I’m looking forward to making a pilot about the sexiest place on Earth: Antarctica. And, yes, we will be shooting on location, so I think we’re going to find a cast very soon,” she joked.
Meriwether is executive producing with fellow New Girl EP Katherine Pope, for whom the project is being carved out from her duties at Studio 8. Macdonald and Grimmer serve as co-executive producers. New Girl’s producer 20th Century Fox TV, where Meriwether is under an overall deal, is the studio. The pilot will be filmed in early 2017.
“Liz is a great friend of ours, and her take on the important genre of South Pole comedy is as brilliant, specific and hilarious as New Girl,” said Madden. “Thin Ice takes place in a world that half-hour television has never touched and does it with original characters, an inimitable voice and Liz-style surprising romance. It’s as fresh and distinctive as anything we’ve read this year, and we’re excited to move forward with Liz and her fantastic team of Ed, Mark and Katherine.”
New Girl is Fox’s most successful live-action comedy of the past decade. It was a breakout hit when it premiered in fall 2011. Now in its sixth season, the series has crossed the 100-episode mark. It is a lucrative property for 20th TV as it has a rich deal with Netflix in addition to broadcast and cable syndication pacts.
This is the latest comedy project with a female lead that Fox has put in development this year. It joins Missing American Woman (working title), from New Girl co-executive producers Matt Fusfeld and Alex Cuthbertson and executive producer Jake Kasdan, as well as untitled single-camera comedies from Ian Brennan, Diablo Cody and Simon Cowell and Erin Foster and Berlanti Productions. The network already has New Girl, to be joined in January by The Mick, starring Kaitlin Olson.
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