NBC is going Fox circa 2005 this pilot season. Twenty one years after Fox cast David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel as the leads of a crime drama procedural pilot, Bones, NBC has tapped the duo to each headline a crime drama procedural pilot for the network.
Deschanel will star in the untitled one-hour written by The Brave creator Dean Georgaris and longtime Davis Entertainment President John Fox. Boreanaz plays the lead in NBC’s The Rockford Files reboot.
The Georgaris/Fox project is inspired by the work of expert profiler and author Dr. Ann Burgess, subject of the 2024 Hulu docuseries Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer. It centers on Professor Georgia Ryan (Deschanel), a trailblazing psychologist who challenges the field of criminology by shifting the investigative focus to the victim rather than just the perpetrator in order to uncover the crucial clues that more traditional methods leave behind. Alongside her team, this pioneering expert consults with the FBI to solve the most baffling and elusive cases.
Georgaris executive produces alongside Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and Fox. Burgess is a consulting producer, as is Steven Constantine. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, where Georgaris and Davis Entertainment have a long history, is the studio.
Deschanel is best known for her 12-year run as forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan opposite Boreanaz on Bones. She was recently seen in indies ReEntry, Big Boys and on the Netflix limited series Devil in Ohio. Deschanel, who next stars in the film Monkey Bread, is repped by Gersh, Principal Entertainment LA, Hansen Jacobsen Teller.