Greg Malins, executive producer of How I Met Your Mother since 2006, is eyeing a new series for FOX. He has teamed with best selling mystery novelist Harlan Coben for an hour-long series project that has yet to be named.
Malins, who has also produced some of the funniest episodes on Friends and Will & Grace, will be doing a project that is a lot different from his work on How I Met Your Mother. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new series is about a larger-than-life former private eye who teaches a college criminology class ---an idea that was sold at the first place it was pitched, FOX, where it landed a script commitment with a penalty attached.
The untitled series, which is described as a drama with humor, comes from 20th Century Fox TV, where veteran comedy writer-producer Malins has an overall deal.
The
How I Met Your Mother producer has always been a huge fan of Coben's work, which includes best selling novels
Play Dead, Miracle Cure, Deal Breaker, and
Fade Away, among others. Coben, on the other hand, has been contemplating about venturing into television for quite some time.
One day in the fall, Malins was surprised to see a collection of Coben novels in the offices of his agency, and was shocked to find out that he shared an agent with Coben. He immediately set up a meeting with the writer and the rest is history.
"It was a dream come true, the coolest thing I've ever done," Malins said. "Before [the meeting] I had him on a pedestal, but he turned out to be a regular guy."
The two came up with an idea for a procedural about a private investigator-turned criminology teacher who solves crimes with his graduate students while also schooling them. The setting will be an UCLA-type school in Los Angeles.
What do you think of the new series?
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff ColumnistSource:
The Hollywood Reporter(Image courtesy of Variety)