New Form’s Latest Incubator Wave Includes Pilots From YouTube Creators Alexa Losey, Jonah Green, MaryDoodles

Todd Spangler

New Form has released nine original pilots from independent creators — with the digital studio hoping to sell the concepts as full series to TV or digital distributors.

The Santa Monica-based company, whose investors include Discovery Communications, ITV, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, unveiled its most recent Incubator Series at the NATPE conference in Miami. The slate of shorts includes fantasy thriller “Immortals,” created by and starring YouTube creator Alexa Losey (pictured above), who has more than 970,000 subscribers; drama “The Win” from Jonah Green (449,000 YouTube subs); and animated “Max the Murder Cat” from MaryDoodles (415,000 YouTube subscribers).

New Form has uploaded five of the pilots to YouTube, which can be viewed below.

Since launching its first Incubator program two years ago, New Form has sold multiple projects to series. Those include “Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures” from PJ Liguori and Anna Akana’s “Miss 2059,” as well as YouTube Red’s “Single By 30”; CW Seed’s “I Ship It”; and “Mr. Student Body President,” which just received an additional 30-episode order from Verizon’s Go90. In addition, New Form sold animated “Final Space,” a story of an intergalactic coast guard who makes it his quest to protect his new alien friend Mooncake from the evil Lord Commander, to TBS as a series that is now slated to debut in 2017.

“Our goal is to tell great stories, and provide some of the world’s most original, emerging creators an opportunity to share something completely new and exciting with their audience,” said Melissa Schneider, New Form executive VP of originals and development. “This round of pilots and creators were selected because they have the right combination of originality, audience scale, creative vision and a passion for storytelling — which is the heart of Incubator.”

The nine pilots are:

  • “American Airness”: Created by Sam Miller, starring Olan Rogers as an underemployed, overzealous 20-something who competes in his first local air-guitar competition… dragging his unamused big sister along with him.

  • “Chris and Mitchell Make a Show”: Starring and created by YouTube creators Mitchell Davis and Chris Kendall, who launch an internet talk show with no studio, no audience and no scripts — while roping in celebrity guests, ancillary content and cross-platform integration.

  • “Fallen For You”: Created by and starring Ashley Skidmore and Brennan Lee Mulligan. A young woman hits rock bottom when her memoir is stolen and she loses her job — when her guardian angel, Todd, steps in to help and she falls in love with him.

  • “Hero”: Created by and starring Dom Fera. Faced with his first real supervillain, an invincible superhero returns to his childhood home defeated — and is forced to reckon with his fear, his identity, and the people he hurt along the way.

  • “Immortals”: Created by and starring Alexa Losey, also starring Melvin Gregg. Forever stuck at age 19, Riley discovers that she is part of a long lineage of Immortals who have lied to her about her origin and importance. Now hunted by her own, Riley will abandon everything she has ever known, setting in motion a chain of events that will threaten their very existence.

  • “Max the Murder Cat”: Created by Mary Doodles, starring Arden Rose. Anne just rescued a cute, cuddly, serial-killing cat named Max. Although he is probably responsible for the disappearances of his previous owners, Anne is different in his eyes. Max ends up becoming incredibly fond, even possessive, of her and his killer instincts turn towards those who threaten their bond.

  • “North of Neon”: Created by Matt Stawski, starring Meg Delacy and Gabriel Conte. In this fantasy adventure, siblings Coin, Eido and Mars are caught in the midst of the Great Dragon War. The trio must go on a quest to find their warrior father while fending off local outlaws to protect their prized baby Ghost Dragon.

  • “Playground”: Created by Bertie Gilbert, starring Chris Kendall. Ezra, on the way to the funeral service for his younger brother Peter, is captured by a group of children who have crash-landed in a magical forest and won’t release him until he fixes their rocket ship. In the process of helping them, Ezra learns to let go, confront burdens from his past and figure out a way to move forward.

  • “The Win”: Created by and starring Jonah Green. Five college misfits, led by the inscrutable Riley, game the California lottery and win $4 million. But when her absent father shows up and blackmails the gang over what they’ve done, the group finds itself faced with an agonizing decision.

Watch five of the New Form Incubator pilots:

Related stories

Digital Studio New Form Raises $18 Million From Discovery, ITV

Get more from Variety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter