TNT has ordered a pilot for “Hinges” from John Wells Productions, which is being produced in association with Warner Horizon Television and Turner’s Studio T. Centering on two middle-class families of different races living in suburban America, the hour-long drama pilots is being written by Janine Sherman Barrois (“ER,” “Criminal Minds”) and is based on her short story “The Boom.” Sherman Barrois serves as executive producer along with John Wells (“ER,” “The West Wing,” “Animal Kingdom,” “Southland”), Anthony Hemingway (“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” “Treme,” “Underground”) and Mark Taylor (“Underground,” “For the Love of Baltimore”).
Hemingway is also set to direct the pilot.
A series that provocatively and humorously dissects middle-class suburbia, “Hinges” follows two sets of neighbors whose lives are dramatically changed in the wake of a scandal that rocks the community. Shifting focus to a different set of families each season, “Hinges” will expose the American Dream to be an illusion as it holds up a fun-house mirror to the cracks beneath a community’s seemingly happy surface.
“‘Hinges’ deals with timely, relevant issues, which not only makes for great storytelling but will also contribute to larger cultural conversations,” said Sarah Aubrey, executive vice president of original programming for TNT. “We look forward to expanding TNT’s relationship with John Wells, whose ‘Animal Kingdom’ was one of the summer’s biggest hits, and Janine Sherman Barrois, who is also producing our new dramedy pilot ‘Claws.'”
TNT is in the midst of evolving its original programming slate, which kicked off in June with the premiere of the critically acclaimed hit “Animal Kingdom,” one of cable’s Top 3 new summer shows. On Nov. 15, TNT will launch the seductive thriller “Good Behavior,” with “Downton Abbey’s” Michelle Dockery as a complicated woman trying to regain her life. The network’s slate of upcoming dramas also includes “The Alienist,” based on Caleb Carr’s New York Times bestseller about a serial killer in New York during the Gilded Age; “Will,” the punk rock version of William Shakespeare’s young life; “Foreign Bodies,” a comedic drama featuring a group of young adults traveling across Asia; and more.
“Hinges” joins four other pilots in the works at TNT: “Let the Right One In,” based on the best-selling novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist; “Monsters of God,” a post-Civil War drama from Rod Lurie and Plan B Entertainment; “Civil,” starring Bradley Whitford, Toby Jones, Courtney B. Vance and Enrique Murciano in a gripping story about America on the brink of a modern day Civil War; and “Claws,” starring Niecy Nash, Carrie Preston, Harold Perrineau and Jenn Lyon in a wickedly funny drama set in a Florida nail salon. Janine Sherman Barrois serves as executive producer/showrunner on “Claws,” which is being written by co-executive producer Eliot Laurence and executive produced by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack.
