Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: A hot comedy project is expected to hit the cable marketplace next week. I hear the untitled comedy has Billy Crystal attached to star, co-write and executive produce, Burn Notice creator Matt Nix co-writing/executive producing and Curb Your Enthusiasm and Borat‘s Larry Charles directing/co-writing and executive producing. Fox TV Studios, where Nix is under an overall deal, is producing. Details about the premise are sketchy but I hear the project is based on an European format and is described as an edgy comedy. Charles and Crystal are co-writing with comedy writer-producer Ben Wexler, who previously worked with Nix on Nix’s Fox dramedy The Good Guys. The four executive produce with Nix’s manager, producer Mikkel Bondesen and Henrik Bastin, both of Fabrik Entertainment (formerly Fuse), which also is under a deal at FtvS. Fabrik’s Kristen Campo co-exec produces. Bondesen and Fabrik have experience adapting European formats for the U.S., most notably with the AMC drama The Killing, which is coming back for Season 3 next month. USA’s Burn Notice will kick off its seventh season also in June.

This marks Crystal’s return to TV. After stints on Soap, his own variety show and Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, Crystal has been focused on features, only returning to TV to host the Oscars and to direct and executive produce the HBO baseball movie 61*. His pairing with Charles is particularly intriguing because of Charles’ successful collaboration with another top stand-up comedian, Larry David, on a cable comedy, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Wexler most recently worked on NBC’s Community. Charles most recently directed ABC’s comedy Mixology, which is a contender for a series pickup. Crystal next reprises his role in the voice cast of Pixar’s Monsters Inc. sequel.

Crystal is with CAA, Charles and Nix are with WME.

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