'Grey's Anatomy' Producers, 'Eight Below' Writer Sell Sci-Fi Drama to ABC

Courtesy of Katherine Tegen Books

Shondaland is exploring artificial intelligence.

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Producing partners Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers have teamed with David DiGilo for MILA 2.0, a sci-fi thriller set up at ABC, The Hollywood Reporter  has learned.

Based on Debra Driza's upcoming book Mila 2.0, the drama is described as a thriller about a young woman who discovers that she's a Mobile Intel Life-like Android, or MILA, an experiment in artificial intelligence created by the U.S. government and her scientist mother who kidnapped her when she was found to have human emotions.

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DiGilio will pen the script and executive produce alongside Rhimes and Beers, the producers behind ABC's Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal.

Driza's young-adult novel, her first, will be published in in March by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.

DiGilo, repped by UTA, Industry Entertainment and attorney Karl Austen, also has The Last H.O.P.E. set up at Showtime about the last hospital on Earth. He came out of Disney's writers program and wrote Eight Below, the Paul Walker canine nature adventure, for the studio. He also created Traveler, the 2007 terrorist thriller show, which starred Matt Bomer. He's attached to pen the sequel to Tron: Legacy for Disney. 

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MILA 2.0 marks ABC Studios-based Shondaland's latest sale this development season, as Rhimes and Beers focus on developing with new writers this season as the showrunner juggles the three dramas. The duo will produce their first half-hour comedy, I Hate L.A. Dudes, with writer Issa Rae attached for ABC; talk show dramedy The Mix with writer John Hoffman at ABC; and FBI drama Under the Gun, with Grey's Anatomy writer Peter Nowalk for NBC.

Rhimes is repped by ICM Partners and Attorney Brooke Wharton; Beers is with UTA.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit