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Laverne Cox to Star in Elizabeth Banks-Produced Psychic Drama Pilot for ABC

Laverne Cox in “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word”: MTV

The woman behind “Orange Is the New Black’s” Sophia Burset has signed on to portray another — albeit very different — reformed criminal. Laverne Cox will star in “Spirited,” a one-hour drama about a fake psychic who discovers she has genuine powers. The project, executive produced by Elizabeth Banks, received a put pilot order from ABC. Variety broke the story.

Should the project get picked up to series, “Spirited” would center on Cox’s character as she “realizes she can really communicate with the dead” and “decides to put her con-woman past behind her and actually start helping people.”

Heather Mitchell (“Scandal,” “Still Star-Crossed”) will write and exec produce the pilot. Max Handelman, Banks’ producing partner at Brownstone Productions, will also serve as an EP.

“Spirited” marks Cox and Banks’ second TV collaboration. Cox and Meaghan Rath (“New Girl,” “Being Human”) starred in the Brownstone-produced ABC pilot “The Trustee.” The buddy cop comedy didn’t end up going to series.

Cox made TV history this year as the first transgender actress cast as a regular on a broadcast series. She played lawyer Cameron Wirth on CBS’ short-lived Katherine Heigl legal drama “Doubt.” “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce,” “Grandma,” and the 2016 TV movie “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” are among Cox’s other screen credits.

Multi-hyphenate Banks has a bunch of projects in the works. She’s serving as producer on “White Girl Problems,” a book adaptation helmed by Lauren Palmigiano, and producing and starring in “Pitch Perfect 3,” out December 22. Banks made her directorial debut with 2015’s “Pitch Perfect 2” and is set to helm a reboot of “Charlie’s Angels” that’s scheduled to hit theaters in 2019. Banks appeared on-screen most recently in Netflix’s “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.”


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