USA Network and Universal Cable Prods. have teamed to greenlight two-hour backdoor pilot The Wilding, a supernatural drama from executive producers Tim Kring (Heroes) and writer-creator Silka Luisa (To The Bone). Ciarán Foy (Citadel) is set to direct.

The project, whose pickup had been in the works for a while with casting already underway, is part of a broader initiative at UCP and the NBCUniversal cable networks it supplies, including USA and Syfy, to jump-start a greater volume of quality series at a lower license fee to the nets through a model that involves UCP supplementing the high-end budget for the shows through financing via collaborations with international networks and SVOD deals. The first project under that initiative was the Syfy/UCP straight-to-series drama series Hunters, from Gale Anne Hurd and Natalie Chaidez.

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The new model involves mostly going straight to series with orders for eight, 10 or 13 episodes. While greenlighted as a two-hour pilot, I hear The Wilding also could go straight to series at any point during production on the pilot.

Set in suburban North Carolina, The Wilding centers around the Hayes family — a typical, loving blended family seeking a fresh start after their 17-year-old daughter, Kayla, is released from a mental health institution following ten years of treatment. Their ideals are quickly threatened, however, when Kayla’s apparitions of the dead begin to haunt them once again.

Luisa wrote the script and will executive produce with Imperative Entertainment’s Kring and Justin Levy (Super Girl) as well as Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Insidious) of Automatik and Bailey Conway. The pilot is set to film in Vancouver.

This marks Heroes and Heroes Reborn creator Kring’s return to USA where he co-created limited series DIG.