E1 Entertainment and Company Pictures in the U.K. have teamed on a American adaptation of the British series Skins, and will shoot a pilot early next year for MTV.

The coproduction will be written by Bryan Elsley, co-creator of the original, with E1’s John Morayniss and Laszlo Barna exec producing along with Company’s Charlie Pattinson and George Faber. Elsley will also showrun the proposed series.

The hour-long teen drama, now in its fourth season back home, follows a circle of friends aged 16 to 18, comparable to the likes of the Degrassi franchise and Dawson’s Creek.

‘It’s very raw, very frank, very warm — it’s got a style all it’s own,’ says Barna. ‘It’s definitely not Disney.’

The U.S. version will be set in Baltimore, shot in Toronto and perhaps elsewhere in southern Ontario, he adds. ‘We’ll have to get the cultural nuances right, but there’s something very universal about kids in transit from childhood to adulthood. But if we let the kids bring that originality, locally, I think it will work,’ says Barna. Elsley, he notes, has a knack for creating true-to-life teen drama by surrounding himself with young talent.

Open casting calls were held recently in Toronto and New York City under casting director Jenny Lewis. The original show only hires actors who match the age of their characters, which makes for high turnover, a policy that stands for the U.S. version. ‘If you’re not 18 anymore you can’t be on the show,’ Barna notes. ‘If you’re 22 but you look 16 you can’t be on the show.’

The project is E1’s first scripted copro with the U.K., building on a number of documentaries. The company says it intends to chase other high-profile copros.