Lego Movie Directors Bringing Serial To TV

Chris Miller and Phil Lord (The LEGO Movie) and Fox 21 Television Studios have optioned the rights to Serial, Julie Snyder and Sarah Koenig's Peabody Award-winning This American Life spinoff podcast. Miller and Lord are developing the cable series, which will follow the podcast as it investigates a case. Which case is still undetermined, but it will not be the murder of Hae Min Lee, which was the subject of Serial's first season.

"Chris and Phil take an unexpected approach to telling stories and that is so appealing to us at Serial," Snyder said. "Developing a show with them is exciting because we feel like we speak the same language, only they're smarter than us."

Snyder and Koenig will executive produce alongside Lord and Miller, as will Alissa Shipp, Ira Glass and Seth Cohen.

"From the very first week of Serial's release last fall, everyone at Fox 21TVS was obsessed with the podcast," Salke said. "One year later, thanks to the incredible passion of Chris and Phil, who flew to New York and shared their vision with Sarah, Julie, Alissa and Ira for what the series could be, we're moving forward on this exciting project. We are confident we'll attract a spectacular writer and look forward to pitching it to outlets very soon."

Serial launched in October 2014 as a complimentary opposite to This American Life, telling one story over several episodes instead of several stories in one episode. Serial become a pop culture phenomenon as listeners became obsessively invested in the first season's subject, the 1999 murder of Lee, a Baltimore high school student, and whether her ex-boyfriend who was convicted of the murder, Adnan Syed, was truly guilty of the crime.

Serial is currently preparing for both its second and third seasons. Rumors suggest one of those seasons will focus on Sgt. Bow Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier held captive by the Taliban for five years, though Serial has not confirmed that to be true.

(via Deadline)