Black Swan didn’t exactly spark a spree of crazy-ballerina dramas, but the Darren Aronofsky-directed film’s influence can be keenly felt in the new trailer for Starz’s upcoming drama Flesh and Bone, from Breaking Bad producer Moira Walley-Beckett.
The drama follows the remarkable life of a young woman who endures the vicious, mercurial tendencies of the artistic director (Ben Daniels) at one of New York City’s most prestigious dance schools, in hopes of becoming a truly great ballerina.
In its first trailer, Flesh and Bone looks like a real step up for Starz, which has scored one big hit in time-traveling drama Outlander but still lacks the acclaim of competing premium networks like HBO and Showtime. With Animal Kingdom and The Rover director David Michod helming the pilot, and Walley-Beckett involved with the writing of all eight episodes in the first season, Starz has certainly assembled the talent necessary for a quality program, and the unsettling visuals glimpsed in this first trailer paint Flesh and Bone both as a dramatic descent into madness and as a gripping series to get absorbed by this winter.
Here’s the official synopsis:
The drama follows a young dancer with a distinctly troubled past as she joins a prestigious ballet company in New York. The dark, gritty, complex series unflinchingly explores New York City through the eyes of Claire, played by Sarah Hay (BLACK SWAN), an emotionally wounded but transcendent ballerina navigating the dysfunction and glamor of the ballet world. Claire’s self-destructive tendencies amid her vaulting ambitions drive her in compelling, unforeseeable ways, especially when she is confronted with the machinations of the company’s mercurial Artistic Director, played by Ben Daniels (HOUSE OF CARDS) and an unwelcome visitor from her past.
Flesh and Bone will pull the curtain back on its first season on November 6, with the Michod-directed pilot.
