Working Title and NBC create TV indie

Movie company Working Title is teaming with NBC Universal to create a new TV production company, Working Title Television (WTTV).

Its first project is Love Bites, a pilot for US network NBC based on the romantic comedy anthology Love Bites, created by Sex and the City executive producer Cindy Chupack. Marc Buckland (My Name is Earl) will direct the pilot.

Working Title has dabbled in TV before, producing the 2000 BBC series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and a handful of other TV movies and scripted shows. Simon Wright ran the earlier incarnation of WTTV between 1990 and 2007.

The new company will focus on drama and comedy programming and NBC Universal will handle the international distribution of all WTTV content.

WTTV will be run by ex-NBCU exec Shelley McCrory, who, as president, will report to Working Title chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. She will split her time between London and Los Angeles.

Juliette Howell will be WTTV’s UK-based head of television and oversee a UK production slate.

She joins from the BBC where she was executive producer in the drama commissioning department and was previously head of development at Film 4 where her credits included Slumdog Millionaire.

“We’ve had our sights set on television for some time because creating dramas, comedies and episodic programming for an international audience is an obvious extension of what we do,” said Tim Bevan, co-chairman of Working Title.