CBS has put in development a drama series based on the Nancy Drew character from the iconic mystery book series. Longtime Grey’s Anatomy exec producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan will co-write the adaptation and will executive produce with Oscar-winning producer Dan Jinks (American Beauty). Nick Nantell, SVP of The Dan Jinks Company, who brought in the project, will be a producer. CBS Television Studios, where Rater & Phelan as well as Jinks are under an overall deal, is the studio.
The project is a contemporary take on the Nancy Drew character, now in her 30s, who is a detective for the NYPD where she investigates and solves crimes using her uncanny observational skills, all while navigating the complexities of life in a modern world.
There have been five feature films and three television shows featuring Nancy Drew to date. Former child actress Bonita Granville portrayed Drew in four Warner Bros. films directed by William Clemens in the late 1930s. The most recent film adaptation was released in 2007, also by Warner Bros with Emma Roberts as Nancy Drew, Max Thieriot as Ned Nickerson and Tate Donovan as Carson Drew. The longest-running TV series based on the character, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, ran from 1977-79 on ABC. It initially starred Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy, but by the third season it focused solely on the Hardy Boys and dropped the Drew character completely and was canceled midway through the season. In 2002, ABC aired Nancy Drew, a TV movie with Maggie Lawson in the title role, which originally was intended as a series.
This is the latest project this broadcast development season based on a popular property — book, series or a movie.
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