MTV is looking to explore the dark side of social media.
The Viacom-owned cable channel has teamed with Judy McGrath’s Astronauts Wanted and digital studio Canvas Media Studios to develop drama series Socio, which will dive into the mind of a teenage sociopath who operates on social media, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Socio — meant to evoke the words “sociopath” and “social media” — will follow Jordan, a teen tech savant who teams with a morally questionable police detective to catch a serial killer. With every case, Jordan must confront the darkness inside her.
The drama thriller was created by digital media veteran Bernie Su, Canvas co-founder and creator of the hit YouTube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. He also wrote and directed a digital pilot that starred India Eisley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) in the lead role. Sources say she is still attached to the project.
Socio is the first television development deal for both companies. It also brings about a reunion for MTV and McGrath, who founded Astronauts Wanted as a joint partnership with Sony Music after serving as chairman and CEO of MTV Networks. AW previously produced YouTube Red Documentary A Trip to Unicorn Island, has worked with rapper and social media star Awkwafina on her digital talk show Tawk and recently teamed with NowThis for animated comedy Trumpocalypse.
Canvas, meanwhile, has focused on projects that can be told through transmedia and recently signed a development deal with Jennette McCurdy to work on projects that could live on multiple platforms.
