Lee Daniels Developing Dreamgirls-esque Musical Drama for Fox

Capitalizing on the runaway success of Empire, creator Lee Daniels is working with Fox on Star, a musical drama about a girl group that may serve as a sister series to the breakaway hit.

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"Like Empire, it's set against the backdrop of the music business but from a very different perspective," Fox chairman and CEO Gary Newman told EW.

Set in Atlanta, Star is about:

[T]hree girls who come together to form a band and it's about their rise to the top in a very challenging business. It's the perspective of the artist and, without getting too much into the storyline, one of our characters is rising out of poverty and there is a a lot from Lee's own life that's baked into the DNA of this project.

Ah, a classic tale, already perfected in real life by the TLC Behind the Music, not to mention the careers of Diana Ross, Beyonce and, to a lesser extent, Michelle Visage. But if anyone can pump some new energy into the Dreamgirls formula, it's Lee Daniels.

Fox chairman and CEO Dana Walden says that Daniels is using that seminal musical as inspiration for his "great soap opera telling machine":

Lee talks a lot about everything from Dreamgirls to modern-day girl groups that are manufactured, that are put together, that don't have an organic reason to be together but are tied to each other and that set-up lends itself to a great soap operatic storytelling machine. Lee loved the mixture of drama and soap and music, and thinks it's a very potent combo. Love the idea of characters who have inherent talent who rise out of circumstance based on talent, that's part of the American dream.

Talent, sure, but we all know that what really makes the American dream -- as well as good television -- is lying cheating and occasionally murdering your way to the top. Throw some tunes in there and a Cookie cameo and Daniels has another huge hit on his hands.

Les Fabian Brathwaite -- seriously, watch that Behind the Miusic.