Nellie Andreeva

A&E Network has teamed with Homicide alums Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson for The Box, a half-hour cop drama that takes place largely within the walls of the interrogation room. The cable network has ordered two scripts from the project, which will be written by Fontana. The Box features a small ensemble of detectives as they interrogate the key suspect or witness in a case. The spine of each half-hour episode will be the verbal dance between cop and suspect in “the box,” with the complete story of the crime, the investigation and the legal hurdles woven into and around the interrogation. The project expands on a key element from Homicide, where plots often pivoted on what the series called “The Box,” a sterile, rectangular interrogation room where suspects were brought in for questioning. “The Box takes the most thrilling scene of a crime procedural and puts it at center stage in a unique format,” said Bob DeBitetto, President and General Manager of A&E Network and BIO Channel. If picked up to series, the project would be produced by Arvin Brown (NCIS), George Stelzner as well as UTA-repped Fontana and Levinson through their The Levinson/Fontana Co. In addition to The Box, Fontana and Levinson recently set up Musketeers 3.0, a cop drama centered on a rookie cop, at the CW, which Fontana is writing as well as executive producing with Levinson.

 

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