America has another go at re-making The IT Crowd
Another attempt is to be made to re-work Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd for American audiences.
Industry website Deadline reports that TV network NBC is working on a new pilot. The project is being overseen by Bill Lawrence, the writer and producer behind Scrubs, Cougar Town and a plan to turn the film Rush Hour into a television series.
NBC has signed a "put pilot commitment" with Lawrence's Doozer production company, WBTV and FremantleMedia North America. This means there will be financial penalties for the network should the pilot not be broadcast.
The IT Crowd launched in the UK in 2006 and ran for 25 episodes, with the final special airing in September 2013. The show, which starred Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson, won multiple awards including an International Emmy and Golden Rose awards.
This will be the second attempt by NBC to transport The IT Crowd across the Atlantic. A series almost made it to air in 2007, however was cancelled at a late stage. That version saw Richard Ayoade reprising his role as Moss, with Joel McHale as Roy, Jessica St. Clair as Jen and Rocky Carroll as Denholm.
The network filmed a pilot in January 2007 and then advertised a full series, however later in the year The Hollywood Reporter stated the show had been cancelled as the series "didn't quite spark" with new NBC chairman Ben Silverman.
Speaking earlier this year in an interview, Joel McHale said he receives a lot of flack from viewers who have watched the American pilot online.
He stated: "Boy do I still take shit from British viewers, like, 'Joel! How dare you? What the fuck were you thinking?' I was like, I wanted a job, alright? That happens a lot on Twitter, I'd say a couple of times a week."
Speaking about whether he thought the pilot had the potential to go on to be a hit show, he added: "There is no way to predict that. I could say it probably would have gone on to be the most successful show in the history of television and the world, possibly, and I think we would have discovered a new life form, perhaps on Mars or Saturn, who would have picked up the show and it would become an intergalactic hit bringing people and aliens together for the first time."
There is no news yet on who will star in the new pilot.
Garrett Donovan and Neil Goldman, writers who has previously worked with Lawrence on Scrubs, will pen on the pilot script. Creator Graham Linehan wasn't involved in the original pilot, and once stated on Twitter "they put my name on it despite never once calling me to talk about it". Linehan is acting as an Executive Producer on the new project, and has tweeted "I'm closely involved and we're going to get it right this time".
This is the second re-make story in 24 hours. Yesterday it was revealed that Chris O'Dowd is re-working Moone Boy for American audiences.
The 2007 pilot of The IT Crowd was leaked online several years ago. You can watch it here: