E4 adds US drama, sci-fi

Channel 4 in the UK has picked up US drama Empire for its youth-skewing network E4 and has also commissioned a trio of shows, including a sci-fi series from the producer of Misfits.

Hip-hop drama Empire

Empire (12×60′) is set in the provocative world of hip-hop music and follows the fictional life of a former street thug turned powerhouse music industry mogul, played by Terrence Howard (Crash).

The series airs in the US on Fox and is produced by Imagine Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television, the distribution arm of which sells the show internationally.

Channel 4, meanwhile, has commissioned a series that documents the lives of 10 four-year-olds to see how they develop and learn, having aired a one-off special based on the concept earlier this year.

The Secret Life of Four Year Olds (7×60′) is produced by Zodiak Media RDF Television and will again see two leading scientists observe the children as they take their first tentative steps towards independence.

Elsewhere, E4 has ordered Tripped (4×60′), a comedy drama about a pair of 10-somethings who, after taking drugs, find themselves tripping to various parallel universes where they encounter different versions of themselves.

Produced by Poldark producer Mammoth Screen, it stars The Inbetweeners’ Blake Harrison and is due to begin airing later this year.

Finally, E4 will air Aliens (6×60′), a sci-fi comedy drama set in a world where extra-terrestrials are amongst us but are forced to live behind a huge wall in a segregated community, in 2016.

Written by Fintan Ryan (In The Flesh), the series is produced by Clerkenwell Films (Misfits) and will begin filming later this year.