TNT Orders 'Hinges' to Pilot, Featuring Multicultural Cast

Director/Producer John Wells, whose company will produce the pilot "Hinges" for TNT.

LOS ANGELES - TNT has ordered a pilot for “Hinges” from John Wells Productions, which is being produced in association with Warner Horizon Television and Turner's Studio T. Centering on two middle-class families of different races living in suburban America, the hour-long drama pilots is being written by Janine Sherman Barrois (“ER,” “Criminal Minds”) and is based on her short story “The Boom.”

Sherman Barrois serves as executive producer along with John Wells (“ER,” “The West Wing,” “Animal Kingdom,” “Southland”), Anthony Hemingway (“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” “Treme,” “Underground”) and Mark Taylor (“Underground,” “For the Love of Baltimore”). Hemingway is also set to direct the pilot.

A series that provocatively and humorously dissects middle-class suburbia, “Hinges” follows two sets of neighbors whose lives are dramatically changed in the wake of a scandal that rocks the community. Shifting focus to a different set of families each season, “Hinges” will expose the American Dream to be an illusion as it holds up a fun-house mirror to the cracks beneath a community's seemingly happy surface.

“‘Hinges’ deals with timely, relevant issues, which not only makes for great storytelling but will also contribute to larger cultural conversations,” said Sarah Aubrey, executive vice president of original programming for TNT. “We look forward to expanding TNT's relationship with John Wells, whose ‘Animal Kingdom’ was one of the summer's biggest hits, and Janine Sherman Barrois, who is also producing our new dramedy pilot ‘Claws.’”