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Darren Criss is following up his award-winning turn in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story with a musical. The Emmy winner will executive produce, star in and write songs for Royalties, a new musical comedy for Quibi.
Royalties is described as a “satirical take on the oft-untold story of songwriters behind the world’s biggest hits.” The show follows the rise of songwriting duo Sara and Pierce (Criss), as they make their way through the various challenges of writing a great song. Each episode will feature real-life music stars playing fictitious and absurd pop stars. The original songs are penned by Criss.
Criss isn’t doing this alone. He’s working with his Team Starkid co-founders Nick and Matt Lang on writing the series. All three are executive producing with Gail Berman, Hend Baghdady, Joe Earley and Ricky Rollins.
Criss shot to fame with Glee and cleaned up with acting awards when he reteamed with Ryan Murphy for the second season of American Crime Story.
The new series will be on Quibi, a mobile-first streaming platform that will be home to projects designed for on-the-go watching. See what else Quibi has in the works below.
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Beauty
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Dummy
Anna Kendrick will star and executive produce the comedy about an aspiring writer and a sex doll. Donal Logue and Meredith Hagner also star.
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Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake is slated to star in a series where he’ll ask singers about what song and singer inspired them to get into the business, then he’ll sing a duet with them.
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This sci-fi drama series is directed by Catherine Hardwicke and stars Don Cheadle, Emily Mortimer and Helena Howard. The series is set “15 minutes into the future” and follows a high school senior who can’t shake a feeling that something isn’t right…and she’s not human.
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Mapleworh Murders
Paula Pell, who starred in Wine Country, will play Abigail Mapleworth, a murder-mystery writer who solves the crimes in her small town. Each episode of this comedy features guest victims and suspects. 30 Rock‘s John Lutz is also starring in the project. Both Pell and Lutz are writing.
MTV
Punk’d and Singled Out
These classic MTV shows are getting a new life. Each received a 20-episode order with episodes coming in under 10 minutes in length. Punk’d is back pranking celebs, this time with even better technology. Meanwhile, dating series Singled Out will allow singles to find love no matter their sexual preference. Despite co-creating the series, Ashton Kutcher is not involved in the new version.
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