Fox Orders 'Hieroglyph' to Series

Fox has a given a straight-to-series order to Hieroglyph, a drama set in ancient Egypt.

Hieroglyph follows a notorious thief who is taken out of prison to serve the Pharaoh, navigating palace intrigue, seductive concubines, criminal underbellies and even a few divine sorcerers.

The series will be produced by 20th Century Fox TV and Chernin Entertainment, the studio behind the network's New Girl. Peter Chernin, Katherine Pope, Travis Beacham (Pacific Rim) and Miguel Sapochnik (Fringe)

will executive produce. The network placed an order for 13 episodes, with production scheduled to begin early next year.

"We wanted to do a show about deceit, sex, intrigue in the court and fantastical goings-on - no better place to set that than ancient Egypt," said Kevin Reilly, chairman of entertainment for Fox. "Travis Beacham has an inventive mind, and he has wrapped this all together in this intoxicating new drama."

Hieroglpyh joins the Batman prequel series Gotham in receiving straight-to-series order from Fox. The network also ordered the John Mulaney comedy Mulaney, which was originally set up at NBC. CBS had also ordered Battle Creek, from Breaking Bad's Vince Gilligan and House's David Shore for next season. CBS has the Steven Spielberg drama Extant slated for a summer 2014 run as well.