Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: The classic 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy Romancing the Stone is headed to the small screen. NBC has bought a TV series adaptation of the Robert Zemeckis movie, which was produced by 20th Century Fox and starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. The TV project, from 20th Century Fox TV and Shawn Levy and Marty Adelstein’s studio-based 21 Laps/Adelstein Prods, has received a script commitment with penalty from NBC. The Forgotten creator Mark Friedman will write the series adaptation with Levy attached to direct subject to feature availability. The 1984 film starred Turner as a romance writer who sets off to Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister, and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure alongside a swashbuckling American bird exporter, played by Douglas.

NBC’s version will follow a successful but unfulfilled woman who teams with a risk-taking adventurer to take on weekly missions while on a larger quest to find her missing brother. Friedman, Levy, Adelstein and 21 Laps/Adelstein’s Becky Clements are executive producing. Friedman and Levy have known each other since their days at USC Film School, where Friedman wrote Levy’s thesis film Broken Record that launched Levy’s career. Friedman also is writing two features for the film division of Levy’s 21 Laps. 21 Laps/Adelstein, which was launched a little over year ago, has its first series, the Tim Allen starrer Last Man Standing, launching on ABC in October.

There has been chatter over the past few years about Fox mounting a feature remake of Romancing the Stone with The Ugly Truth director Robert Luketic and stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler rumored for it at one point.

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