Liz Heldens Sets Drama Pilot ‘Big Leap’ at Fox

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “The Passage” creator Liz Heldens has scored a drama pilot order at Fox for the 2020-2021 season.

The one-hour project is titled “The Big Leap.” Inspired by the UK docuseries “Big Ballet,” the show centers on a group of diverse underdogs from all different walks of life who compete to be part of a competition reality series that is putting on a modern, hip remake of “Swan Lake.” What they lack in the traditional dancer body type, they make up for with their edge, wit and desire to reimagine an iconic story to fit their own mold.

Heldens will write and executive produce the pilot, with Sue Naegle also executive producing. 20th Century Television and Fox Entertainment will produce. Heldens is currently under an overall deal at 20th TV.

Heldens developed “The Passage” for Fox based on the book trilogy by Justin Cronin. She also served as showrunner and executive producer on the series. Her other credits include creating the shows “Deception” and “Mercy” and co-creating the series “Camp.” She also served as a writer and producer on shows like “Friday Night Lights” and “The Orville.”

She is repped by Hansen Jacobson.

The pilot order marks just the second for 20th TV thus far this pilot season. The studio, which is now a part of Disney, previously set up the drama “Ordinary Joe” at NBC, which hails from the writing team of Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner.

The other show ordered to pilot at Fox this pilot season is the drama “The Cleaning Lady,” based on an Argentinian format. Fox has also given a series order to the animated comedy “Housebroken” and a series commitment to “Carla” with Mayim Bialik attached to star.