Lisa Kudrow, Melissa Fumero Team With New Form For Original Pilots
New Form has released its upcoming slate of pilots from its most recent incubator series, featuring both traditional and web-based stars. The digital studio’s incubator series (now in its fifth run) acts as a showcase for up and coming creators mentored and developed through the program. Pilots that have been sold in the past have included Streamy Award winners “Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures” and “Anna Akana’s Miss 2059”, YouTube Red’s “Single By 30,” “I Ship It,” and the Conan O’Brien produced animated series “Final Space.”
The newest wave of this incubator series includes content from web series stars such as Manon Matthews, Eric Ochoa, Alexa Losey and television stars Melissa Fumero (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) and Lisa Kudrow, who in 2015 signed an exclusive deal with New Form through her production company Is or Isn’t Entertainment.
New Form has a recent track record for including shows that take a different route than traditional television, as noted by Kathleen Grace, CEO at New Form.
“Something I often hear in marketplace is surprise at the kind of pilots that we greenlight; the odd, the risky, the black sheep,” said Grace in a statement. “But we do this because we have the audaciousness to believe in people and different kinds of stories, that’s what Incubator is all about. We regularly engage with creators who represent all perspectives and could not be more thrilled to share this with our audiences.”
Adding to the studios’ commendable approach to delivering a wide range of stories from different perspectives is the fact that the newest wave of incubator pilots were either produced by or feature female leads.
Below are the seven pilots announced by New Form and their official synopses.
“Mourners Inc.”
Created by Cristina Gomez and Luke Eve and starring Fumero and Ochoa, “Mourners Inc.” follows former child-star Monica, who is now broke and barely clinging to her sobriety when the father, who abandoned her fifteen years ago, dies and leaves her the Latino family business. She inherits Mourners Inc, a company that supplies à la carte mourners for wakes and funerals (think escorts, but more death). But, there’s a catch — to take ownership of the biz, Monica must deliver a shiny, loving eulogy at her father’s funeral, a man she barely knew.
“Campus Catwalk”
Created by Lisa Kudrow, Dan Bucatinsky and Louise Rozzett and starring Nisalda Gonzales and Alexa Losey, “Campus Catwalk” tells the story of Tally Lopez, a blue-state girl who just doesn’t fit in at her red-state college. When this undocumented Valor College Freshman is bullied online after wearing a traditional Mexican dress to a political rally, she starts an Instagram feed to champion self-expression through fashion. Her mission? To celebrate the personal style of everyone — friend and foe — on campus.
“Kate of the Damned”
Created by Nerdist’s Andrew Bowser, Ben Mekler and Jason Nguyen and starring Megan Amram, Jim O’Heir (“Parks and Recreation”), Shannon Woodward (Westworld) and Lucas Neff, “Kate of the Damned” follows 30-year old burnout Kate who, after being bitten on the neck by a mysterious figure, wakes to find that she is now a vampire. Even worse, she is now the Queen of the Vampires. This new title apparently comes with an entourage of minions who expect Kate to reign over them — not to mention end a centuries old war between her kind and the werewolves. The only problem, Kate could not care less.
“Anti-Social”
Created by Manon Mathews and Jason Zumwalt and starring Mathews, “Anti-Social” follows Brielle, a model famous for her Instagram, good looks and sexy snaps who loses her famous boyfriend and most of her followers when the world discovers she’a s high school dropout. To get back the guy (and the fame), she re-enters as a Freshman at Chandler High. When she is finally forced to put down her phone, she just might learn that it’s not how the world looks at her that’s important, but how she looks at the world.
“Boy Toys”
Created by Sunny Tripathy and starring Cody Ko, “Boy Toys” revolves around a group of attractive, charming millenial guys who attempt to woo wealthy women in the hopes of changing their own misfortune. Their leader (and perpetual man-boy) Kyle, is always looking for shortcuts in life and he must stay competitive in order to win the affection (and lifestyle) of LA’s most prominent women. But the game of playing people, comes at a price. And for Kyle, that includes losing the love of his life.
“Good Face”
Created by Helen Kriger and Linah Suh, “Good Face” follows Clara, a yong Korean-American doctor’s assistant with dreams of being an artist who has a secret that would shame her strict, traditional parents: she has a white boyfriend…and she’s living with him. When one fateful night brings the different pieces of her life into conflict, she must confront her unsettled identity to have any hope of reconciling herself and her two lives.
“@Therealassistant”
An original production from New Form, “@Therealassistant” is a vertically shot, frantic buddy-comedy following Christina, an ambitious yet naive young woman who scores an assistant job to a high profile, wrecking-ball of a social media star: Smashley. Week in and week out she finds herself thrown into a proverbial wood chipper — one insane request after another.
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