IT Crowd heads to Russia

British comedy The IT Crowd will be remade in Russia, TBI understands, after distributor FremantleMedia struck a deal with local production company Star Media Group.

A pilot for the series, which was created by Father Ted’s Graham Linehan, is currently being shot and Star Media is in talks with local broadcasters.

Vlad Riashyn, chief executive of Star Media, which produces series including crime drama Demons, told TBIvision: “One of our [recent] purchases is the rights to TV format The IT Crowd; we are shooting the pilot episode and discussing it with the Russian TV channels.”

The series, which originally aired on Channel 4, has been remade in Germany as Das iTeam – Die Jungs an der Maus (The iTeam – The Boys at the Mouse) for Sat.1 but was cancelled after its second episode. A US version was also in production in 2007 for NBC but was never picked up.