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Apple is doubling down on Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence.
The tech giant has handed out a 10-episode, straight-to-series order for Bad Monkey, Lawrence’s dramatic adaptation of author Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 best-selling novel. Vince Vaughn will star and exec produce the series about a demoted detective.
Written by Lawrence, Bad Monkey revolves around Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), a one-time detective who was demoted to restaurant inspector in Southern Florida. A severed arm found by a tourist out fishing pulls Yancy into the world of greed and corruption that decimates the land and environment in Florida and the Bahamas. And yes, there’s a monkey.
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The series hails from Warner Bros. TV, where Lawrence is under a rich overall deal that, per sources, is in the midst of being re-negotiated following the success of Apple and the studio’s Emmy-nominated comedy Ted Lasso. Lawrence exec produces via his studio-based Doozer Productions alongside the company’s Matt Tarses and Jeff Ingold. Liza Katzer will co-executive produce. Ted Lasso, which Lawrence co-created alongside star and EP Jason Sudeikis, recently snapped Glee‘s Emmy record as the most-nominated rookie series with its 20 total mentions.
For his part, Bad Monkey will be Vaughn’s first series regular role since his turn in former HBO anthology True Detective. As an exec producer, his TV credits include F Is for Family and Sullivan & Son. His feature credits include Swingers, Wedding Crashers and The Break-Up. He’s repped by WME, Range Media Partners and Jackoway Austen.
Comedy veteran Lawrence, whose credits include Scrubs, Spin City, Cougar Town and Clone High, is rebooting the latter series for HBO Max where he also is an exec producer on an update of Head of the Class giving him a total of four series for Warners. He’s repped by ICM Partners and attorney Jared Levine.
Bad Monkey was first published in 2013, with The New York Times calling the novel “a comedic marvel … beautifully constructed,” and a “…rollicking misadventure in the colorful annals of greed and corruption in South Florida.”
Bad Monkey joins a growing slate of scripted originals at Apple that also includes For All Mankind, Dickinson, Foundation, Home Before Dark, Invasion, The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray, The Last Thing He Told Me, Lessons in Chemistry, Masters of the Air, The Morning Show, Mr. Corman, The Mosquito Coast, Mythic Quest, Physical and many more.
A premiere date for Bad Monkey has not yet been determined.
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