The series will feature performances by Jordan Fisher, Julianne Hough, Jackie Tohn, Bonnie McKee, Jennifer Coolidge, Lil Rel Howery, Mark Hamill, Rufus Wainwright and Sabrina Carpenter.
Update (May 26): Quibi has debuted the trailer for Royalties, which will launch on June 1. Republic Records will release the series’ original soundtrack, out June 12 and marking the first major label release for a Quibi show.
Darren Criss is the latest in the long list of high-profile talents to set a series at shortform streaming platform Quibi.
The Assassination of Gianni Versace Emmy-winner will star in, executive produce and write songs for Royalties, a musical comedy series centered on a pair of songwriters. The project is the first sale for SideCar, the Fox Entertainment “content development accelerator” headed by Gail Berman that launched in February. Criss is also co-writing the series with longtime collaborators Nick and Matt Lang of Team Starkid, the musical theater company/YouTube channel they co-founded in 2009.
Royalties is described as a “satirical take on the oft-untold story of songwriters behind the world’s biggest hits. The show follows the ascent of a ragtag songwriting duo, Sara and Pierce (Criss), as they navigate the strange and hilarious challenges of creating a truly great song, week after week.”
The series will also feature real-life music personalities playing fictional (and ridiculous) pop stars who work with the two lead characters and original songs written by Criss.
Criss and Nick and Matt Lang are executive producing along with Berman and Hend Baghdady of SideCar, Joe Earley and Ricky Rollins.
Royalties is the latest get for Quibi, the shortform streamer that launched in spring 2020. The Jeffrey Katzenberg-founded company is also developing scripted and unscripted shows from the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Idris Elba, Guillermo del Toro, Lena Waithe, Peter Farrelly and Lorne Michaels, among others.
SideCar will act as a studio of sorts for Fox, which since Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox TV is no longer aligned with any of the major studios. Fox Entertainment will own all SideCar-produced projects.
Watch the trailer below.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
