JANE ESPENSON AND DREW Z. GREENBERG TO WRITE NEW SYFY PILOT RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED) FROM ITV STUDIOS AMERICA AND UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS
NEW YORK - January 13, 2011 - Writers Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg are teaming to pen the script for Syfy's pilot development project Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) from ITV Studios America. Syfy announced last May that it had acquired the rights to the classic British detective show for development as a potential one-hour series with Howard Braunstein of Jaffe/Braunstein Entertainment (The Memory Keepers Daughter/ Christmas in Canaan) on board as executive producer. Randall and Hopkirk is a co-production between Universal Cable Productions and ITV for Syfy. UCP will be the producing company.
Jane and Drew most recently collaborated on the Syfy original series Caprica, where Espenson served as executive producer and Greenberg as supervising producer. The pair also worked together on genre busting crossover television hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Espenson was a writer/producer and Greenberg a writer.
Espenson's other writing and producing credits include Battlestar Galactica, Gilmore Girls and Dollhouse. Greenberg's writing and producing credits include Warehouse 13 and Dexter.
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is based on the popular British detective series from the late 1960s in which Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) was murdered while investigating a case. He returned as a ghost, visible only to his former partner, Randall (Mike Pratt), and assisted him in sleuthing from beyond the grave.
ITV Studios America, the U.S. based production entity of ITV plc in the U.K. is one of the largest international producers for the U.S. market and a major force in acquiring, developing and producing reality and scripted programming for US networks.
ITV Studios, Inc., is a world leader in television production and distribution, with international production centers in the UK, Germany, Australia, France, Spain, and Scandinavia as well as America and programs distributed to over 155 territories worldwide.
Universal Cable Productions creates quality content across multiple media platforms for USA, Syfy and other networks. A leader in innovative and critically acclaimed programming, UCP is the studio behind USA's Royal Pains, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Psych, In Plain Sight, Covert Affairs and Fairly Legal, as well as Syfy's Eureka, Warehouse 13 and Alphas . The studio also produced the long-running series Monk and Battlestar Galactica, as well as the series Caprica. UCP is a division of NBC Universal.
Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in more than 98 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. (Syfy. Imagine greater.)
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