CBS is developing a new take on the scripted detective series Einstein from Monk pair Andy Breckman and Randy Zisk.
“Brilliant but directionless, the great grandson of Albert Einstein spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective solve her most puzzling cases.”
This is the third attempt at developing the project for CBS. In 2019, Monk creator Breckman and director Zisk developed a version of the show, which ran for three seasons in Germany. The following year, the network teamed with Insatiable creator Lauren Gussis and American Gothic creator Corinne Brinkerhoff for a gender-swapped version of the show that added a new perspective on policing, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
There was also a version of Einstein in the works at NBC in 2018 from Michael Reisz and Carol Mendelsohn.
Four years on, Breckman and Zisk are giving it another go. Breckman will write and Zisk will direct with both exec producing. It is being produced by CBS Studios in association with Red Arrow Studios International.
The project has been shepherded by Intrigue Entertainment’s Tariq Jalil, who also exec produces and has been involved in all four attempts.
Written by Martin Ritzenhoff and Matthias Dinter based on the 2015 movie they penned, the German Einstein series ran on Sat.1 for three seasons. It starred Tom Beck as Professor Dr. Felix ‘Einstein’ Winterberg and Annika Ernst as police commissioner Elena Lange. It was produced by Zeitsprung Pictures.
CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach recently sat down with Deadline to discuss the network’s programming strategy.
She said that she still expects to pick up some development rooms and “potentially even a comedy pilot or two.”
“I like to say that we’re just not being beholden to a certain calendar. But in terms of pilots or going straight-to-series, or maybe picking up development rooms and all of that, we want to be bespoke in the way that we do our R&D on shows. So yeah, we’re not going to necessarily be stuck in that calendar year. To me, it’s pilot season now all the time,” she said.
