Men's cabler Spike TV is putting a "Grand Theft Auto" twist on the one-hour crime drama.
Cabler has teamed with Matthew Cirulnick (UPN's upcoming "South Beach"), Flame Television and Cube Vision Prods. on a series project about a man acting as a double agent for a straight-arrow cop.
Cirulnick will write and exec produce the series. Flame TV topper Tony Krantz and Cube Vision's Matt Alvarez and Ice Cube will also exec produce.
Untitled project is one of the first drama-script buys at Spike, which installed a new programming team under topper Doug Herzog this past summer (
Daily Variety, July 5). Former Showtime exec Pancho Mansfield oversees original series efforts out of the West Coast.
Story centers on a 21-year-old who gets caught up in a series of criminal ventures in order to help out his blue-collar family. When he gets caught by the police, he is recruited by an upstanding cop left to infiltrate the numerous rackets that have overrun the city.
Cirulnick said he was inspired by vidgames like "Grand Theft Auto" -- a popular game among the young men Spike targets.
"It puts a spin on the undercover operative theme," Cirulnick said. In this show, "The main guy is very conflicted and doesn't always make the obvious choices."
Cirulnick wrote the screenplay to "Paid in Full" and the Peacock pilot "Thomas Crown Affair." Most recently, he created and will co-exec produce the UPN sudser "South Beach."
Krantz will also exec produce "South Beach" and remains an exec producer on Fox's "24."
Cube Vision is producing a documentary series about race relations for FX (
Daily Variety, July 27) and recently exec produced the Showtime comedy "Barbershop."
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