Kevin Brown’s New Project With Queen Latifah

Thanks to pershing for this.

Mystery woman: Queen Latifah sleuths for CBS
Fri Sep 27, 2:48 AM ET

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) — Queen Latifah is returning to
primetime television.

The versatile actress and recording artist has signed a deal with CBS to
develop and star in “Mali Anderson,” a drama series project based on Grace F.
Edwards’ popular “Mali Anderson Mystery” series of books.

In “Mali Anderson,” Latifah will play the title character — a former New
York police detective who works as a private investigator out of her dad’s
apartment in the Strivers Row section of Harlem, N.Y., and takes care of her
nephew, whose parents died in a skiing accident.

Queen Latifah is also executive producing the project with Lawrence Bender
and Kevin Brown. Queen Latifah’s production company Flavor Unit and Bender
and Brown’s Bender-Brown Prods. are producing.

Negotiations are under way for Tina Andrews (CBS’ “Jackie Bouvier Kennedy
Onassis”) to write the script and for Warner Bros. Television to come on
board as part of the studio’s first-look deal with Bender and Brown.

When all deals are finalized, the project is expected to be a co-production
between WBTV and CBS Prods.

If the project goes to series, it will be a rare broadcast network drama
centering on a black female character.

“We look at this as an opportunity to do an extraordinary television series
with an extraordinary, unique talent in Queen Latifah, who has such broad
appeal because of her acting and her music,” Brown said.

Bender and Brown were bidding on the rights to the “Mali Anderson” books when
they realized the person they were bidding against was Queen Latifah, a big
fan of the novels. The three partnered together and took the project to CBS.

Queen Latifah’s producing partner/manager Shakim Compere will serve as a
producer.

In primetime, Queen Latifah most recently toplined the Fox comedy “Living
Single.” “Mali Anderson” extends her relationship with CBS. Last season, she
starred in the network’s hit miniseries “Leaving With the Dead.”

On the big screen, Queen Latifah will next be seen in “Brown Sugar.” She also
stars in the upcoming feature version of the musical “Chicago” and the comedy
“In the Houze,” which she is executive producing.

Andrews won a Writers Guild of America Award for penning CBS’ 2000 telefilm
“Sally Hemings: An American Scandal.” Her writing credits also include the
1998 feature “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”

Latifah and Andrews are repped by WMA.

Brown previously optioned the rights to the series of books on which the WB
Network/UPN drama “Roswell” was based and was an executive producer on the
show.

Bender was nominated for an Oscar for his producing duties on “Good Will
Hunting” and “Pulp Fiction.”

This past development season, Bender and Brown were executive producers on
WBTV’s pilot “Lost in Oz” for the WB Network and ABC’s telefilm/backdoor
pilot “Nancy Drew,” scheduled to air Oct. 20.

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