Spike TV and FremantleMedia North America (FMNA) in association with Random House TeleVision Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment, have joined forces to develop a script for a new original series based on the best-selling novel "Basket Case" by prominent author and journalist Carl Hiaasen.
Legendary Emmy(R) Award-winning director, producer, actor
Rob Reiner is set to direct and develop the script.
Peter Gethers ("The Cat Who Went To Paris," "Old Jews Telling Jokes") and
Jeffrey Levine ("Too Big to Fail") will serve as executive producers and Alex Taub ("Hart of Dixie," "Drop Dead Diva") will write the series. UTA represents both Random House Television and Taub. Thom Beers, Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk serve as executive producers for FremantleMedia North America. Reiner and Liz Glotzer are executive producers for
Castle Rock Entertainment.
"Corruption, murder, and laughs. I can't think of a more satisfying combination. Carl Hiaasen strikes the perfect balance. I'm so looking forward to entering his
Twisted world," said Reiner.
"It's very cool to have
Rob Reiner involved with 'Basket Case,'" said Hiaasen. "Among writers of satire, 'Spinal Tap' stands as a work of genius. I'm excited to see what Rob will do with my
Twisted little novel."
"We are thrilled to have sold our first scripted series to Spike," said Gethers. "What makes it particularly gratifying is that, not only is the show based on the work of one of Alfred A. Knopf's most beloved authors, we get to partner with
Rob Reiner and
Castle Rock. It's a dream combination for us."
The plot of "Basket Case" focuses on a great investigative reporter who has trouble dealing with authority, change, women, success, and most of all, corruption. The family-run newspaper he works for is sold to a giant, international conglomerate and after he savages the new and very powerful owner in a video on the paper's website, he is demoted to the lowest position on the paper, the obituary desk. Obits, however, provide a new perspective into crime-ridden Miami and he soon learns that they are a unique window into suspicious deaths and weird goings on. Using an unusual team of friends, relatives, an ex-wife, newspaper misfits, and his beautiful new boss, he strives to regain his investigative credibility and a saner life.
A critically acclaimed novelist whose works have major staying power on national bestseller lists, Carl Hiaasen has penned 13 novels for adults, including most recently "Star Island" in 2010 and "Bad Monkey" in 2013. Hiaasen also authored four books for young adults most notably "Hoot" in 2002, which was made into a movie four years later. He has sold nearly 13 million copies of his books in the U.S in hardcover, paperback, audio, and e-book editions, which have been. translated into 34 languages worldwide. "Basket Case" has sold 700,000 copies in the U.S., and has been published in 13 foreign countries.
Hiaasen has received numerous awards for his work including the
Damon Runyon Award from the Denver Press Club. His work has also appeared in many well-known magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Time, Life, Esquire and, Gourmet.
About Spike TV:
Spike TV is available in 98.8 million homes and is a division of Viacom Media Networks. A unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), Viacom Media Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV's Internet address is www.spike.com.
About FremantleMedia North America:
About FremantleMedia North America: FremantleMedia
North America (FMNA) is the U.S. arm of global media giant FremantleMedia, which includes a distribution arm, FremantleMedia International, a digital and branded entertainment division and a kids & family entertainment business. As the world's largest independent studio, FremantleMedia's comprehensive global network has operations in 25 countries, creating over 9100 hours of programming a year, rolling out more than 60 formats and managing over 400 individual titles. FMNA and its portfolio of companies produce entertaining and innovative scripted and alternative programs for network, cable,
Syndicated and online platforms. Their slate includes a diverse range of both critically-acclaimed and award-winning successes including "American Idol" (FOX), "The X Factor" (FOX), "America's Got Talent" (NBC), "Family Feud" (SYN), "Let's Make A Deal" (CBS), "The Price Is Right" (CBS), "The Great Christmas Light Fight," (ABC), "The Tomorrow People" (The CW), "Deadliest Catch" (Discovery), "Married to Medicine" (Bravo), "Ice Road Truckers" (HISTORY), "Storage Wars" (A&E), "The Pet Collective" (blip.tv), and the upcoming "Celebrity Name Game" (SYN), among others.
About Random House Studio:
Random House Television is part of Random House Studio, the filmed-entertainment division of Penguin Random House, the world's largest trade-book publisher. Under
Peter Gethers, President, Random House Studio works with Random House's editors and publishers, and their authors' agents, to identify and acquire performance rights for the full range of broadcast network, cable, and premium television scripted formats. In 2012, Random House Television and FremantleMedia formed a partnership to produce scripted- television programming based on books published by Random House's imprints. Random House Television also creates and produces unscripted television programming. Its current weekly series is "Heartland Table," which airs Saturday mornings on The Food Network, starring Amy Thielen, author of THE NEW MIDWESTERN TABLE, which is the inspiration for the program.
The Random House Films division of Random House Studio, co-produced 2011's theatrical release "One Day" starring
Anne Hathaway, with Focus Features, part of
NBC Universal, with whom they have an ongoing co-production and distribution deal.
About Penguin Random House:
Penguin Random House (http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com) is the world's first truly global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children's fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, Penguin's trade publishing activity in Asia and South Africa; DK worldwide; and Random House's companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world's most widely read authors.
About The
Castle Rock Entertainment:
Castle Rock Entertainment has produced over 100 movies, including acclaimed films such as WHEN HARY MET SALLY, A FEW GOOD MEN, IN THE LINE OF FIRE, MISS CONGENIALITY, MICHAEL CLAYTON, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, and most recently BEFORE MIDNIGHT, as well as the hit television show SEINFELD.
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