Alloy Goes 'Private' School, Makes Open Casting Call

Alloy Entertainment, known for its work on The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl, has announced that it will be putting out a web series based on, Private, the popular teen-mystery novels by author Kate Brian.

This is Alloy Entertainment’s second original web series, having recently launched its UTA-backed Haute and Bothered on Teen.com.

The New York Times bestselling novels focus on Reed Brennan, a girl who goes to a “private boarding school in Connecticut.” So far, there are about ten books that have been published. The novels usually start off with all the superficial flare and plot that comes with school society but eventually evolve into more complex storylines.

The overall plot in the first four novels centers around the murder of Reed’s boyfriend, Thomas, and that’s where the web series will get much of its storyline.

The Private web series will be directed by Dennie Gordon who has worked on numerous television show and the movie What a Girl Wants. The series is also being adapted by Sarah Kucserka and Veronica Becker, both of whom have written for Ugly Betty.

At the time of this posting the series is set to begin shooting on June 29th and will wrap on July 15th. The web series will air sometime in July 2009 on the marketing website’s video hub, Teen.com

The marketing company has also done something rare: it has posted an open casting call for the part of Kiran aimed at fans of the book series. Those who want to audition for roles in the web series may download one of three available 60-second scripts, film the video, then upload the short to the website.

Fans will vote for their favorite video and 15 entrants will win prizes. Producers of the show will select their top three favorites who will take part in a reality series and compete for a role on the web show. Brian also announced the web series and the casting call through a video on Privatenovels.com.

“Audition video uploaded will be accepted throughout the month of May at privatetheseries.com,” said Brian on the video. The casting call will last for about five weeks and the reality series will air sometime near the end of July.

Alloy has lined up some top tier brands, including making a deal with Johnson and Johnson for “integrated product placement” in both the reality series and the web series. Since the show itself is targeted at teens, the show will have products geared toward the age group form brands like Neutrogena and Carefree.