Cable television has shown the crime fiction community some love with shows like DEXTER and RIZZOLI & ISLES, now one of the networks appears to be eying a similar move.
ABC is looking to develop a series based on Lisa Lutz’ THE SPELLMAN FILES. While it is described as a crime drama, the novels themselves are of a more humorous bent. I would imagine this will carry over if the series comes to air.
In THE SPELLMAN FILES you first meet Isabel Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors—but the upshot is she’s good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family’s firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people’s privacy comes naturally to Isabel. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman, tail a Spellman, dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.
I swear this sounds like something David Kelley would do. Casting would be key, but it could be damn entertaining.
Greg Yaitanes will be the exec producer. Greg is exec producer on HOUSE and previously worked on over two dozen television shows including BONES, DAMAGES and LOST. He won an Emmy for HOUSE.
Also announced was Katie Lovejoy, who will write the pilot and serve as supervising producer, presumably overseeing the writing. Katie previously hosted a Fox Movie Channel series and also won a Humanitas Student Drama Fellowship for a spec script for HOUSE. That is how she came to the attention of Mr. Yaitanes.
