Starz announced today that Tony-nominated Ben Daniels (House of Cards, Law & Order: UK) will star as the volatile and brilliant artistic director 'Paul Grayson' in new Original drama Flesh and Bone.

Flesh and Bone was created by Emmy award-winning Breaking Bad writer and Executive Producer, Moira Walley-Beckett and follows a young ballet dancer with a distinctly troubled past as she joins a prestigious ballet company in New York. The dark and gritty series will unflinchingly explore the dysfunction and glamour of the ballet world.

Acclaimed dancer Sarah Hay (Black Swan) has been cast in the lead role, joining an already stellar cast of world-renowned dancers, including former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Irina Dvorovenko and current soloist Sascha Radetsky, along with Ballet Arizona company dancer Raychel Diane Weiner and Boardwalk Empire). Royal New Zealand Ballet artistic director and world renowned former American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Ethan Stiefel will be the series choreographer. Acclaimed director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, The Rover will direct the first episode. Ms. Walley-Beckett will serve as Executive Producer along with Lawrence Bender (Oscar nominated for Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting), Kevin Brown (Roswell) and John Melfi (Sex and the City, House of Cards, Nurse Jackie, Rome). Bender, Brown and Walley-Beckett all have connections to the world of ballet, which brought them together with Starz on this project. Bender and Walley-Beckett are former ballet dancers, and Brown's family is made up entirely of former ballet dancers, and their story was the basis for the Oscar-nominated film, The Turning Point.

Production is scheduled to begin in New York City in spring 2014. Flesh and Bone will debut on Starz in 2015.

Starz will retain all domestic and international multiplatform rights including television, home entertainment, and digital.