Sexual assault was the focus of the second season of FX’s “American Crime,” but a new series is tackling this timely, sensitive subject matter from the get go, and from a decidedly different angle.
Fox has given a put pilot commitment to a series titled “Controversy,” Deadline reports. From “Scandal” co-executive producer Judy Smith, “Controversy” centers on “a successful crisis-management consultant brought in to advise a university when a co-ed accuses football players of gang-raping her. Facing a crisis of conscience, she partners with a lawyer for the university to seek out the truth,” Deadline writes.
Smith was the inspiration for Kerry Washington’s “Scandal” character Olivia Pope. She will executive produce “Controversy” as well. She also has a legal drama called “Justice” in the works at Fox, which was inspired by Smith’s own life. “Justice” focuses on high-powered African-American woman who is made the new U.S. Attorney.
“Controversy” will be co-written by Sheldon Turner. The project hails from Jennifer Klein’s Vendetta Productions and Turner.
As the 2015 doc “The Hunting Ground” illustrated, sexual assaults on campus are a national epidemic. According to RAINN, sexual violence is more prevalent at colleges than elsewhere: 11.2 percent of all students experience rape or sexual assault. The number rises to 23.1 percent among undergraduates.
