Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Ryan Reynolds is returning to his TV roots, this time as a producer. After a bidding, NBC has picked up Mayors of Casterbridge, a comedy project from writer Craig Doyle, which Reynolds executive produces through his Dark Trick Films. The comedy, from Warner Bros. TV, is described by some as Old School meets Gran Torino. If the project goes to pilot, Reynolds is expected to make a cameo and may also have a small role on the potential series.

It revolves around four elder statesmen of a classic American Neighborhood who have their community threatened by a young upstart determined on making Casterbridge just another homogenized tract home complex. These four men band together to restore their neighborhood to its glory days, while helping each other take on the new challenges in their life.‬ “Mayors fills a void in programming – more specifically, it aims to spotlight the less explored sexagenarian in all his vitality, rage, corrosive wit and bottomless immaturity,” said Reynolds who is executive producing with his Dark Trick Films partner Jonathon Komack Martin and Doyle.

Reynolds got his break as a star of the ABC comedy Two Guys and a Girl. He segued into features, and will next be seen as the lead in Buried and Green Lantern. His Dark Trick shingle recently focused on TV producing, and Mayors is the first project to come out of that. At NBC, Doyle previously wrote and exec produced the 2004 comedy pilot Weekends. Doyle and Reynolds are repped by CAA. Doyle is managed by Madhouse Entertainment.

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