Freeform is on its way to the world of rich Manhattanite with its latest range pickup.
The cable outlet owned by Disney has green light The Watching Eyea thriller centered on a young babysitter who goes to work for a wealthy New York family who houses a closet full of secrets.
Mariel Molino (ABC’s promised land) will star Elena Santos, who maneuvers her way to a job with a wealthy family and has some shocking secrets of her own. Molino takes over from Andrea Londos, who played Elena in the program’s pilot; sources say the character was reworked to the pilot, which led to the reworking.
Julie Durck (Grace and Frankie) created The Watching Eye and will serve as a consultant. Emily Fox (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) will be the showrunner on the series of ABC Signature and Ryan Seacrest Productions.
“I’m incredibly excited about this series because it offers a contemporary twist on the classic mystery and thriller genre,” said Jamila Hunter, CEO of programming and development at Freeform. “Julie, Emily and everyone on the team have created a surprising world of possessions and what not that is perfect for Freeform’s audience.”
The cast of the show also features Warren Christie, Kelly Bishop, Amy Acker, Jon Ecker, Lex Lumpkin, Henry Joseph Samiri and Aliyah Royale. Fox will partner with executive director Jeffrey Reiner (Dirty JohnFriday Night Lights) and Ryan Seacrest Productions’ Seacrest, Nina Wass and Andrea Shay.
“We are so excited to work with our partners at Freeform and ABC Signature The Watching Eye, “an updated twist on a classic Hitchcockian thriller with an empowered female lead who has an ax to sharpen,” Fox, Wass and Shay said in a statement. “An elegant apartment building in New York City called The Greybourne offers a backdrop where nothing is as it seems and where the palace plot has an undercurrent of terror. Elena Santos is very much a force to be reckoned with, and the Manhattan power players who underestimate her may soon realize they have met their match. Who in this day and age does not secretly crave to eat the rich? ”
Molino is represented by Ellis Talent Group, ECG Talent Group and Goodman Genow.
The Watching Eye join a Freeform-written list that includes the recently updated Single drunk woman, mature, cruel summer, good trouble and the upcoming animated comedy Petey Price. The cable also has AZNBBGRLa drama pilot set in Orange County’s Little Saigon community.