EXCLUSIVE: Fox has put in development The Building, a drama series from fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman and Angry Films. 20th Century Fox TV is the studio.

The Building is based on a digital film called Parallels which has had great success on Netflix. The original film was written and directed by Chris Leone (story by Leone and Laura Harkom). Parallels came out of Fox Digital Studios a division of 20th Century Fox where it was shepherded by head of department David Worthen who has been supervising a number of ultra low-budgeted productions for Fox since the department’s founding.

Written by Albert Kim and Leone, The Building involves a large skyscraper that moves between alternate realities and a group of young urban explorers who are in the building and suddenly find themselves on an Earth wherein Reagan was not elected and Russia dropped the bomb. They then figure out they have a limited amount of time to figure out where they are and rescue members of their team before the building shifts again to another reality. They soon realize that this Earth is also different from where they started and getting back may be impossible.

The series will explore the origin of the building, who built it and why, what happens on each floor and how, if at all possible, do they get back to their original Earth. The Building aims to continue Fox’s tradition in the sci-fi/fantasy genre with such shows as Gotham, from WBTV, and The X-Files and Sleepy Hollow, from 20th TV.

Gaiman and Leone, who worked together on the development of The Building, will executive produce alongside Kim, who will serve as showrunner, as well as Angry Films’ Don Murphy and Susan Montford, who have had a long relationship with Gaiman. For Kim, the project falls under his overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV.

Gaiman is the award winning New York Times bestselling author of numerous works of fantasy including the The Sandman graphic novels (which are in development at New Line Cinema) the Matthew Vaughan film Stardust, the upcoming Starz TV series American Gods and Neverwhere (a TV series from Mark Gordon Studios). Gaiman is repped by CAA and Writer’s House. Leone is repped by Circle of Confusion, Brant Rose Agency and James M. Feldman at Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman.