HBO develops Sony Pictures TV’s mystery drama

US premium network HBO is developing Sony Pictures Television’s mystery drama The Return of Daniel Shepherd, marking one of the first times that it bought a show from an outside studio.

Michael Lombardo, president of programming at HBO, told TBI earlier this summer that the network was ramping up business with the Hollywood studios.

This follows the purchase of Damon Lindelof’s The Leftovers from Warner Bros.

“We have stuff in development now from a couple of the studios and we would absolutely proceed to make a show with one of them,” Lombardo said. “Basically only one or two studios have come to us to try and figure out how to do business with us.”

The Return of Daniel Shepherd is written by The Widow Detective writer David Hubbard and is produced by Maria Grasso and Deborah Spera’s One-Two Punch Productions in association with Sony Pictures Television.

It tells the story of a boy who returns to his family after being missing for 13 years after his abductors are murdered.