Fox Orders Another Music Pilot from ‘Empire’ Producer Lee Daniels

Lee Daniels
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 13: Producer Lee Daniels attends A Tribute To African-American Achievements In Television hosted by The Paley Center For Media at Cipriani Wall Street on May 13, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Now that he’s built an Empire, producer Lee Daniels has set his sights on finding a Star.

Fox announced Thursday morning that Daniels is developing Star, the “story of three young women, all with hopes of making it big, and the choices they’re faced with along the way. It will showcase the allure and heartache of the cut-throat music scene, while also exploring cultural themes from a new perspective.”

According to Fox Entertainment Group chairman Dana Walden, who announced the show at Fox’s portion of the Television Critics Association press tour, the show will be set in Atlanta and focus on the perspective of artists (as opposed to Empire, which is told from the industry executive perspective). One of the characters rises out of poverty. “A lot of Lee’s life is baked into the project,” Walden said. “He’s excited about it.”

Daniels is working with Tom Donaghy (The Whole Truth), a writer outside of Empire, on the show. Although the potential of both shows living in the same universe exists, Walden and Gary Newman said there are no crossovers planned now, and that wholly-contained originals will live separate from Empire.

Fox notes that Star is the first to emerge from Daniels’ multi-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television. Casting for the pilot will begin shortly.

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