Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Fox’s pilot Mixtape is going to series — at Netflix. The Internet network has given a 10-episode order to the musical drama starring Jenna Dewan, Callie Hernandez and Madeline Stowe. The project hails from Quantico creator Josh Safran; Annapurna Pictures; 20th Century Fox TV, which produced the original pilot; and its cable/streaming division Fox 21 TV Studios.
The majority of the cast of the Fox pilot, which was directed by Jesse Peretz, are set to continue. That includes Hernandez, Jahmil French, Dewan, Campbell Scott, Stowe, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Megan Ferguson and Evan Whitten.
The male lead, played in the Fox pilot by Raul Castillo, will be recast, and possibly the child role of his young son. As a result, there will be some reshoots on the pilot, which would be helmed by Peretz subject to availability.
Written by former Smash showrunner Safran, Mixtape is a romantic musical drama that looks at the love stories connecting a diverse, disparate group of people in contemporary Los Angeles through the music that lives inside their hearts and minds.
Safran executive produces with Annapurna’s Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle as well as Ali Krug.
While Mixtape did not make the cut to series at Fox, the pilot was an internal favorite and had support among network executives. As we previously reported, it was taken out by the studio to streamers immediately after Fox Broadcasting Co. had made its pickup decisions last month. The talks progressed at Netflix and, with a deal in its final stages, the actors were picked up this past weekend just hours before their options were set to expire.
This is the third broadcast pilot to get a series order by Netflix after missing the cut at its original network. Last year, the streaming platform picked up drama Insatiable (originally at the CW) and comedy All About the Washingtons starring Rev Run (originally at ABC).
It’s been a busy month or so at Netflix, which also picked up canceled Fox drama series Lucifer and continues negotiations for Designated Survivor.
Mixtape was the first broadcast pilot for Annapurna and the second series at Netflix for the company, which also has the Coen brothers anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
At Netflix, Fox 21 TV studios recently produced the Veena Sud series Seven Seconds. This marks the first 20th TV broadcast project — pilot or series — to find a second life on a SVOD platform.
Safran is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham.
