Nellie Andreeva

Filmmakers Brian Koppelman and David Levien have sold the first project under their their first-look deal with 20th Century Fox TV, the duo’s first formal TV deal. The project, drama Yard Dogs, which has received a script commitment from Fox, will be written by Malcolm Spellman (Our Family Wedding). It revolves around two cops who specialize in getting information from prisoners pertaining to cases that the police can’t crack in the outside world. Koppleman and Levien are executive producing. Spellman is currently writing the animated musical Welcome To the Jungle for Jamie Foxx at Fox Animation.

Sony TV and Jamie Tarses’ studio-based Fanfare banner have landed a script commitment with penalty at CBS for Baby Big Shot, a legal drama written by Dana Calvo, a supervising producer for the Sony/Fanfare TNT series Franklin & Bash. It centers on a working-class woman who uses her street smarts to compete with her more polished colleagues at a tony Manhattan law firm. Calvo, Tarses and her Fanfare partner Julia Franz are executive producing along with Sony TV-based writer-producer Kevin Falls. This is a rare foray into drama for comedy-focused Fanfare, which has already sold several half-hour projects this season, including a comedy to CBS with writer Jeff Rake.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.