LeBron James, Elizabeth Banks to Produce Basketball Drama in the Works at NBC
LeBron James and Elizabeth Banks are teaming up to executive produce a drama series titled “Hoops” currently in development at NBC, Variety has learned.
In the one-hour series, after years on the road as both a star player and coach in the WNBA, Stevie Decker jumps at the chance to return to her alma mater to become the first female head coach of a men’s college basketball team. But coming home isn’t easy as her career took a toll on her family and the school she loves is embroiled in a sex scandal involving her mentor, a legendary former coach. NBC has given the project a script commitment with a penalty attached.
The series hails from writer and executive producer Jennifer Cecil. James will executive produce under his SpringHill Entertainment banner along with SpringHill’s Maverick Carter. Banks will executive produce via her Brownstone Productions along with Max Handelman. SpringHill and Brownstone will produce in association with Warner Bros. Television, where both companies are set up under an overall deal.
Cecil most recently worked on the ABC series “Notorious.” Her other TV credits include shows like “Hell on Wheels,” “Private Practice,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “One Tree Hill,” and “Providence.”
Brownstone’s slate currently includes multiple film, television, and digital projects across various networks and studios including Universal, Sony Pictures, Amazon, CW, ABC, Lionsgate, Netflix, Hulu, and Paramount Digital. The company recently lined up a put pilot commitment for an untitled Nkechi Carroll project at ABC. On the film side, Banks is currently writing, directing, producing, and appearing in “Charlie’s Angels.”
SpringHill has been increasingly moving into the TV space, with projects in the works like the scripted drama series on Madame C.J. Walker with Octavia Spencer for Netflix, an HBO documentary on Muhammad Ali with Antoine Fuqua, a multi-part NBA documentary film series for Showtime, and the docuseries Warriors of Liberty City for Starz. Other upcoming projects include drama series “Top Boy” with Drake and Adel “Future” Nur for Netflix, the David Meyers’ helmed feature “Hustle” for Legendary, as well as the action comedy “Public Enemy” with Channing Tatum’s Free Association. James and SpringHill also produce the current NBC competition series “The Wall.”
SpringHill is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Brownstone is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Cecil is repped by UTA.
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