Medevac Baghdad Drama From Shondaland &’Grey’s Anatomy’ Writer Set At ABC

The medical drama genre put Shondaland on the TV map with the breakout success and staying power of Shonda Rhimes’s Grey’s Anatomy. Now the company is taking a different take on the medical soap arena with a drama from Grey’s Anatomy co-executive producer Zoanne Clack. ABC has put in development the untitled project, from Shondaland and ABC Studios where the company is based. Written by Clark, the project centers on a U.S. Army Medevac (medical evacuation) team whose job it is to save lives while risking their own. They operate out of an oddly Americanized base camp in Baghdad circa 2004, where they get on each others’ nerves, sleep with the wrong people, navigate “office” politics and party like there’s no tomorrow. Clark executive produces with Shondaland’s Rhimes and Betsy Beers.

Clack has medical background that extends to overseas emergency operations. She attended medical school at UT Southwestern before doing her residency in Emergency Medicine at Emory University. Clack has a Masters of Public Health in Behavioral Sciences and spent a year working with the Center for Disease Control in international emergency medicine. There, she helped develop an emergency medicine program in response to the bombing of the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and played a part in expanding emergency medicine to the Pacific island of Palau. Since switching to a writing career, Clack has worked on three medical dramas, Presidio Med, ER and Grey’s. She is repped by CAA and Circle of Confusion.

This is the third ABC sale for Shondaland this season, joining comedy Splitsville and a convent-set drama from Alison Schapker. The company is repped by ICM Partners.