Charles Murray Named Showrunner To Lee Daniels’ New Fox Series, ‘Star’Posted by Wilson Morales
May 4, 2016
Source: Deadline
Charles Murray, a writer/co-executive producer on the final two seasons on FX’s Sons of Anarchy and director of the indie film Things Never Said, has been named as the executive producer and showrunner to Lee Daniels‘ new series for Fox, ‘Star.’
Deadline is reporting that he has signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV, whose cable division Fox 21 TV Studios produced the gritty FX drama series. The site also states that Murray will be developing his own projects for the studio.
Murray recently served as executive producer on the first season of Netflix’s next Marvel series, Luke Cage, which will air in September and as one of the writers on A+E Networks’ upcoming Roots remake, which airs during Memorial Day weekend.
“Charles has written in every conceivable genre, on shows from 20th Century Fox TV NEWSons of Anarchy to Castle to Criminal Minds,” said 20th TV president of creative affairs Jonnie Davis. “He literally defines versatility, and he brings a passion for excellence and a confidence to every project. Star is a huge priority for the network; it’s wildly ambitious and packed with talent from the luminous Queen Latifah to the bright young discoveries that form the girl group at its center. Charles is exactly the right showrunner to take on this exciting series and ensure that we not only shoot for the stars but actually reach them.”
Written by Daniels and Tom Donaghy and set in Atlanta, Star revolves around three talented young singers (Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny and Brittany O’Grady), who form a girl group with hopes of making it big in the music industry. Variety states that the project has been described in the vein of “Dreamgirls,” while incorporating the manufacturing of modern-day girl groups, showcasing the allure and heartache of the cut-throat music scene, and exploring cultural themes from a new perspective.
Queen Latifah will play Carlotta, the owner of an Atlanta beauty salon who has an amazing voice and becomes a surrogate mother to the three girls in the group, even though she doesn’t approve of their musical dreams. The series will feature original music, along with musical fantasy sequences, as the girls dream of their future. Benjamin Bratt and Nicholas Gonzalez co-star with Lenny Kravitz set to come on as a guest star.
Murray will executive produce alongside Daniels, Donaghy as well as Pamela Oas Williams and Effie Brown. His previous TV credits include writing and producing on Criminal Minds, Castle, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Third Watch. He also directed the first episode to Kurt Sutter’s FX series, The Bastard Executioner.
Interesting enough, back in 2011, Murray was going to write and executive produce a police drama series for CBS with Latifah set to executive produce through her production banner Flavor Unit Entertainment. That project never came to fruition.
