NBC Universal reups Sci Fi's guy

Eick sets up pair of projects at FX

By JOSEF ADALIAN

Eick

"Battlestar Galactica" exec producer David Eick has reupped his first-look deal at NBC Universal even as he continues expanding his development roster to non-Peacock properties.

Eick, who this spring is shepherding the NBC redo of "The Bionic Woman" and the Fox thriller "Them," has set up a pair of projects at FX. One, a drama script, reteams him with "Battlestar" buddy Ronald D. Moore.

In addition to previously announced projects at Sci Fi, he's in talks to produce a miniseries for Lifetime.

Eick said he's been trying to piece together "a small but focused array of projects that I guess you could call high concept."

"They all share a common theme," he said. "And that is of social allegory, of using big ideas to talk about our culture in disarming ways, whether it's cigarettes or Cylons."

Eick's new collaboration with Moore is called "Guilty Pleasures," a one-hour drama the scribe calls "the most outrageously subversive thing I've done." Project is about a town that can be saved only by the resurgence of Big Tobacco.

"It's really going at the American experience, where big business is our savior," Eick said.

Moore is writing the script and will exec produce with Eick via David Eick Prods.

Also at FX, Eick has teamed with scribe Will Strouse for "The Wanting," an hour Eick describes as a cross between "All About Eve" and "Fight Club."

"It's about a stalker and his prey and how, in a twisted way, they need each other," Eick said. Scribe said the pilot script will comment on the American fascination with celebs and people "who are famous for being famous."

Details on the Lifetime mini are being kept under wraps, but Eick called it "the scariest project of all the things we're doing."

At Sci Fi, Eick continues working with Moore on "Caprica," the potential "BSG" prequel from scribe Remi Aubuchon (Daily Variety, April 27) whose fate will soon be determined. He's also teamed with Matt Cirulnick to develop the Sci Fi mini about the end of days (Daily Variety, Oct. 10). Net also recently renewed "BSG" for a fourth season.

On the broadcast front, Endeavor-repped Eick is working with NBC U TV Studio on "Bionic" and CBS Paramount Network TV on "Them."

Long-term, Eick -- a former development exec at USA Network -- said he's trying to emulate another successful TV producer.

"The goal would be developing a business in high-concept projects that's as healthy as what Jerry Bruckheimer has done in the crime business," he said.