MTV skins up

Deadline are reporting that MTV has picked up Skins to series. The cable network has ordered 10 episodes for a U.S. version of the raunchy U.K. teen series, which has been a passion project of MTV’s senior vp series development Liz Gateley. The series is being eyed for a January launch. MTV ordered a pilot for Skins in August after Gateley pursued the rights to the British format for almost two years. Bryan Elsley, co-creator of the original series, wrote the pilot. He is executive producing the project with Charlie Pattinson and George Faber. E1 is producing the series with Company Pictures and Stormdog, the companies behind the original series.

In much the same fashion to the successful UK series, the remake will feature previously unknown teenagers as the main cast and use young writers to pen the scripts. The series will be set in Baltimore and several name changes will take place for the characters with Cassie changing to Cadie, Jal to Cho, Side to Stanley, Abigail to Tabitha, Anwar switching to Abbud and Maxxie changing to a Hispanic character named Teo.

Gateley is ecstatic to have finally secured a US version. “Skins is one of those rare shows that cuts through to its core audience with unusually authentic stories due to the unique writing and casting process that Bryan pioneered. Having personally pursued the U.K. project for almost two years, I am beyond thrilled to bring it to MTV in the U.S. We intend to preserve the authenticity of the British version and are excited to collaborate with the original team to develop stories that will speak to American youth.”

Skins is one of two high-profile scripted pilots MTV ordered, along with Teen Wolf. A series pickup for Teen Wolf is still pending, contingent on closing the deal with rights holder MGM.