Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: TV Land has reached to a foreign land for its latest comedy project. In a competitive situation, the cable network has picked up for development an U.S. version of the Israeli format Zanzuri from Ben Silverman’s Electus. Frasier alum Jon Sherman will write the adaptation, which centers on a family man who suffers a heart attack on his 40th birthday and discovers that every man in his family has died of a heart failure at that age. He then decides to go for it, grabbing life by the balls, and the people around him begin to see the difference. Zanzuri hails from DBS, Israel’s sole satellite television provider. IAC-owned Electus has strong ties with the Israeli TV industry. In 2010, the company partnered with Guy Hameiri’s Abbot Reif Hameiri Production Co. “We have numerous deals in the Israeli marketplace, we see it as hotbed of creativity,” Electus CEO Chris Grant said. Electus, which has several unscripted series on the air and in the pipeline, including VH1′s Mob Wives and NBC’s upcoming Fashion Star, recently landed its first series order on the scripted side with Marco Polo at Starz. The company also has a couple of scripted projects set up at the broadcast networks, all based on international formats, including The Avalon at ABC, with Friends co-creator Martha Kauffman writing/executive producing.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.