NBC Adapting German Sitcom 'Danni Lowinski' for U.S.

'Glee' and 'Scream Queens' co-creator Ian Brennan is working on the show about a working-class lawyer who runs her practice out of a mall kiosk with Tariq Jalil’s Intrigue and 20th Century Fox TV.

NBC is developing a half-hour comedy series based on hit German sitcom Danni Lowinski.

Ian Brennan, co-creator of Glee and Scream Queens, is adapting the 2010 German series together with Tariq Jalil’s Intrigue Entertainment and 20th Century Fox TV, which has an overall deal with Brennan.

Danni Lowinski follows a street-smart, working-class woman who, after she is rejected by every traditional law firm in town, decides to set up her own law practice from a mall kiosk, changing the world a case at a time, charging clients a dollar per minute. The U.S. series relocates the action from Cologne, Germany to Milwaukee.

Brennan wrote the adaptation and will serve as showrunner and executive producer together with Jalil and Lucas Carter of Intrigue, along with Jan David Frouman, chairman and CEO of Red Arrow Entertainment, which has worldwide rights to the format and negotiated the deal with 20th Century Fox. Michael Schmidt and Shirley Bowers are also executive producers on the U.S. version.

Marc Terjung created the original Danni Lowinski, which was produced by Markus Brunnemann of UFA Fiction for German commercial network SAT.1. The series, starring German comedian Annette Frier, ran for five successful seasons from 2010 until 2014 and won numerous awards. The show has already been adapted in several other countries, including in the Netherlands, where a remake ran for four seasons.

"The successful remakes in different countries have shown how this timeless, iconic figure can work everywhere, even in the U.S.," Brunnemann said.

This is the second time Danni Lowinski will get a U.S. adaptation. The CW ordered a pilot for an American version of the show in 2010. Written by Jennie Snyder Urman and starring Amanda Walsh in the title role, the project did not go to series.

Intrigue is an adaptation specialist. In addition to Danni Lowinski, the group has the medical drama Have Mercy, also based on a German format, in development at CBS, with Gina Rodriguez executive producing. It also has two other adaptations in development at NBC: the legal drama Eternal, based on a Turkish format, and Level, a cop drama adapted from a British original.