Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In his first foray into network television, Alex Proyas, director of such features as I, Robot, The Crow, and Dark City, is set to direct and executive produce Evolve, a drama project for ABC written and executive produced by Jaime Paglia, co-creator/executive producer of Syfy’s long-running series Eureka. Paglia’s sci-fi background will come in handy for Evolve, which is based on the Toxic City trilogy of novels by British Fantasy Award- and Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Lebbon. Evolve is set two years after a mysterious biological agent is released over Los Angeles when the city is still deemed too toxic to inhabit and remains sealed off from the rest of society. A small group of ordinary citizens outside the quarantined zone, who do not believe the government’s story, embark on a mission to uncover the truth of what happened to their family members who were inside the affected area. What they discover is a world where once-ordinary humans now have extraordinary abilities and powerful government forces seek to destroy them.

ABC Studios is producing Evolve, with Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Michael Prevett and Jeremy Bell of the Gotham Group executive producing through the company’s two-year first-look deal at the studio. The first book in the Toxic City trilogy, London Eye, was published this month by PYR. Proyas and Gotham Group are repped by CAA; Paglia by Paradigm and attorney Ron Levin; Lebbon by the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

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