Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Cuesta, director/executive producer of the Emmy-winning Homeland, has teamed with CSI executive producer/showrunner Carol Mendelsohn for Second Sight, a drama based on the 2000 British series starring Clive Owen. The project has been set up at CBS through CBS TV Studios, where Cuesta is under an overall deal, and studio-based Carol Mendelsohn Prods.

Second Sight centers on a homicide detective going blind who turns his affliction into an advantage – using his heightened senses and intuition to solve crimes. (watch the trailer for the original series below.) Cuesta will write the adaptation with his brother Gerald Cuesta. The two previously teamed for another CBS drama project, the cult 2007 zombie pilot Babylon Fields, which Gerald co-wrote and Michael directed. Michael Cuesta is set to direct Second Sight, which he is executive producing with Mendelsohn, her executive Julie Weitz, Paula Milne, who created the original series, and Nick Reed. Weitz secured the rights to the British format for Carol Mendelsohn Prods. through British-born agent-turned-producer Reed, with whom she previously worked together at ICM. Gerald Cuesta and Phil Goldfine are co-executive producing.

Michael Cuesta recently shared in Homeland‘s best drama series Emmy win. He also was nominated (and was heavily favored to win) for directing the pilot of the psychological thriller. Cuesta has directed six episodes of Homeland so far, including the pilot, the second episode, the two-part first-season finale and the second season opener, which premiered on Sunday. There are four series currently on the air whose pilots he directed: Showtime’s Homeland and Dexter and CBS’ Blue Bloods and Elementary. Cuesta and Mendelsohn are with WME.

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