Nellie Andreeva

Fox has given a pilot order to a spy drama written by Karyn Usher (The Playboy Club). The procedural thriller centers on the orphaned 17-year-old daughter of a CIA operative who is recruited to become an operative herself. She encounters a mysterious rogue agent/assassin who serves as both her surrogate father and professional mentor in the spy world. The project hails from 20th Century Fox TV and Mary Adelstein and Shawn Levy’s studio-based 21 Laps/Adelstein Prods. Usher, Adelstein, Becky Clements and Levy are executive producing. The project, which originally sold to Fox in September with a significant penalty, marks Adelstein and Usher’s third project and first pilot together. Adelstein originally met Usher on the Fox/20th TV drama Prison Break, which he executive produced and on which Usher rose to co-executive producer. The two later developed a U.S. version of the British format Daylight Robbery. The pickup of Usher’s project comes on the heels of Fox’s order to Josh Friedman’s drama, which also is about a female spy. (Fox seems determined to break that arena this season.) This brings the number of drama pilots picked up by the network to four, including the previously greenlighted Marc Guggenheim/Greg Berlanti legal drama Guilty and a serial killer drama by Kevin Williamson. Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly indicated earlier this month that he was looking to order five drama pilots.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.