ABC Buys Soap/Thriller From Shondaland

Shonda Rhimes’ company Shondaland has sold its fourth project this season, drama The Circle to ABC. Written by Richard Robbins (Shondaland’s Inside The Box), the ABC Studios-produced project is described as part soap, part conspiracy thriller that follows ten friends, adopted as children by a billionaire philanthropist, who begin to question their past when one of their own is murdered. Robbins and Shondaland’s Rhimes and Betsy Beers are executive producing. The Circle joins Shondaland’s other 3 projects this season, Gilded Lillys from writer KJ Steinberg and a legal drama from Jenna Bans at ABC and the company’s first sale to an outside network, dramedy Wildwood, which received a put pilot commitment at Fox.