Rashida Jones dramedy “Claws” moves to TNT with pilot pickup

PanARMENIAN.Net - TNT is sinking its claws into dramedy. The Turner-owned cable network has picked up Claws, an hourlong dramedy exec produced by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Originally developed as a half-hour, single-camera comedy at HBO, Claws is set in a South Florida nail salon. It is described as a midnight-dark, wickedly funny meditation on female badness that follows the rise of five diverse and treacherous Floridian manicurists in the traditionally male world of organized crime. The potential series will showcase that there's a lot more going on at the Nail Artisan of Manatee County salon than silk wraps and pedicures.

Claws hails from Warner Horizon Television and Jones and producing partner McCormack's studio-based Le Train Train banner (Toy Story 4, Celeste and Jesse Forever, A to Z). Eliot Laurence (Welcome to Me) penned the script for HBO. He also wrote the new hourlong script for TNT and will co-exec produce for the cable network.

The deal for Claws expands Turner's relationship with Jones, who stars in and exec produces corporate sibling TBS' cop comedy Angie Tribeca.

For TNT, the news comes as the drama-focused cable network looks to reinvent itself and make noise with edgier fare beyond staples like Rizzoli & Isles, The Last Ship and Major Crimes. Under topper Kevin Reilly, the cabler has added Chad Hodge's Good Behavior, starring Michele Dockery, miniseries Alienist and film-to-TV adaptation Animal Kingdom, with a Tales From the Crypt horror block from M. Night Shyamalan in the works.

For Warners, Claws keeps the studio in business at the network where it has Major Crimes, the final season of Rizzoli & Isles and forthcoming drama Animal Kingdom in the works.