NBC and Universal Media Studios are reassembling a team from “Friday Night Lights” to tackle another genre: the Western.
“Lights” exec producers Peter Berg and Sarah Aubrey are saddling up with Liz Heldens, a co-exec producer on the recently retired football series, who will write the script for what’s described as a Western from a female point of view.
NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt is said to be keen on trying to revive the genre if the right project comes together. Though no one has put a Western in primetime since HBO’s “Deadwood,” AMC is set to give it a shot this fall with its drama “Hell on Wheels.” NBC tried last year with Peter Horton-produced pilot “Reconstruction,” but it didn’t make it to air.
Berg is already back on NBC this fall as exec producer of “Prime Suspect.” In addition, he will oversee upcoming HBO series “On Freddie Roach.”
Heldens moved on from “Lights” to other NBC series that didn’t last as long, serving as exec producer on “Mercy,” which she created, and co-exec producer on “Love Bites.” She signed a two-year overall deal with UMS in 2009. Before that she was under an overall deal at 20th Century Fox TV, where she worked on the WB series “Pepper Dennis” and Fox’s “North Shore.”
