"Pretty/Handsome" seemed to have all the required elements for a buzzworthy pilot: Respected creator (Ryan Murphy), well-known star (Joseph Fiennes) and provocative premise (man decides to undergo a sex change).

None of those things, however, have been able to save it. The show appears to be dead after failing to find a TV home, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Pretty/Handsome" was initially set up at FX, where Murphy's "Nip/Tuck" has been a strong performer for five seasons. Fiennes ("Shakespeare in Love," "Running with Scissors") was set to play a married man who breaks the news to his wife and kids that he wants a sex change. The cast also included Carrie-Anne Moss, Blythe Danner and Robert Wagner.

Murphy wrote the script with fellow "Nip/Tuck" scribe Brad Falchuk and also directed the pilot. Brad Pitt was an executive producer through his company, Plan B Entertainment.

FX, however, decided to pass on the pilot in the spring, the HR says. Producer 20th Century Fox tried to sell the show elsewhere, but those efforts have come up empty.