Pivot Signs On for Fortitude

NEW YORK: The Millennial-targeted network Pivot is on board for the Sky Atlantic original Fortitude, along with having 11 projects in development from various production companies.

The 12-episode Fortitude, which stars Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Sienna Guillory and Luke Treadaway, will be a Sky/Pivot original. The dark drama series, which has psychological and thriller elements, follows the residents of the Arctic town of Fortitude. It gets shaken up by the brutal murder of a research scientist and starts to experience above-average temperatures.

Among the new series announced by Pivot is Human Resources (formerly TerraCycle), a comedy about an eccentric entrepreneur and his team of employees at a company whose mission is to eliminate waste on a global scale. Also new to the slate is Welcome to Fairfax, a docuseries about a group of friends and collaborators who are each pursuing their own version of the American dream.

Pivot has a second season of the Australian comedy Please Like Me coming to its schedule in August. The daily talk show TakePart Live is part of the May lineup.

There are 11 series in development at the network, including the comedies Laughing Matters (Eyeworks/Media RED), Leader Town (Electus) and Panic Years (Universal Cable Productions). In the way of drama, there are Prison Earth (FremantleMedia North America) and Thirst. There are a host of unscripted projects in development as well, among them America's Got Issues, a clip-based comedy. New docuseries include American Rewind, I Am Young Detroit and an untitled Andrew Jenks project. My Favorite Things is a half-hour series that celebrates the things we love.

Pivot and Univision have teamed up in an effort to jointly produced and/or acquire a series of docs available in both Spanish and English. From this effort comes Cesar's Last Fast, a multiplatform doc looking at Cesar Chavez, and Marmato, a documentary about an artisan gold-mining village in rural Colombia.

Evan Shapiro, the president of Pivot, said, “Pivot’s first slate established us as a programming brand of distinction, with uniquely original, high-quality series, specials and films. Our second slate demonstrates our significant investment in, and commitment to, groundbreaking content for the thought-leading segment of Generation Y we call ‘Upstanders.’ We believe that a story well told can change the world. Pivot’s programming is meant to spark conversation among the very people most likely to create that change.”

Belisa Balaban, the executive VP of original programming for Pivot, added, “We set the bar high this past year. The support from the creative community has been enormously gratifying. We are thrilled to be working with some of the most well-regarded producers and talent in the industry and look forward to showcasing both scripted and unscripted content that sets us apart from everything else on television.”