Pivot enters drama with Fortitude

US network Pivot is entering the drama genre after replacing fellow American channel Starz as a coproduction partner on upcoming BSkyB thriller Fortitude.

The show was commissioned by the UK satcaster’s Sky Atlantic channel and had been due to air in the US on Starz – the pair’s first ever coproduction – but the latter pulled out in December, citing production changes.

Instead, Participant Media’s Pivot, which launched last summer, will now be the exclusive US home for the 12×60’ series, which is scheduled to transmit in 2015. It will be the first original scripted drama for the network, which launched last year.

The show is being produced by Tiger Aspect Productions-owned Fifty Fathoms Productions, part of Endemol, with filming currently underway in Iceland and the UK.

It is set in a remote Arctic town, where the close-knit community is shocked by the murder of a British research scientist. The local sheriff and a visiting British detective investigate without completely trusting each other.

Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games), Michael Gambon (The King’s Speech) and Christopher Eccleston (Lucan) all star in the series, which was created by Simon Donald (Low Winter Sun). Patrick Spence (Five Minutes of Heaven), Frith Tiplady (Peaky Blinders), and Andrew Woodhead (Spooks) are attached as exec producers.

Pivot president Evan Shapiro said: “A thriller with an eco-twist, Fortitude is storytelling at is finest with some of the industry’s best writers, producers and talent at the helm making it the perfect first dramatic series for Pivot.”

Jane Millichip, MD of Sky Vision, added: “This series from Fifty Fathoms exudes quality and scale, and – importantly for the international market – is produced in volume, a rare commodity in British drama.”