Great news for Serial fans: Podcast heads to TV
Hit podcast series "Serial" has a new case to crack: television.
Creators of "The Lego Movie", Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, have joined forces with Fox 21 Television Studios, to option the rights to Serial, the true crime series which put podcasts back on the map.
Directors, writers and producers, Miller and Lord, expect to develop a cable series, which would track the making of the podcast as the investigators follow a case.
However, while the case is not yet known, the writers won't concentrate on "Serial's" first series' account of Adnan Syed and the murder of Hae Min Lee.
Serial's first 12-part series generated fans worldwide, with it becoming the fastest podcast to reach 5 million downloads in the history of Apple's iTunes store back in November 2014.
As of the start of September 2015, the podcast has been downloaded 97 million times, more than double the amount of downloads, after the series ended in December 2014, according to Vanity Fair.
"Serial's" narrator, Sarah Koenig and its executive producer, Julie Snyder, will be executive producers on Lord and Miller's project.
"Chris and Phil take an unexpected approach to telling stories and that is so appealing to us at 'Serial'," Snyder explained.
"Developing a show with them is exciting because we feel like we speak the same language, only they're smarter than us."
As "Serial" is a spin-off of NPR's radio program, "This American Life", the NPR show's executive producer and host, Ira Glass, and producer, Alissa Shipp, will be involved, along with Seth Cohen as executive producers.
"From the very first week of 'Serial's' release last fall, everyone at Fox 21TVS was obsessed with the podcast," Bert Salke, president of Fox 21 TV Studios said in a statement, emailed to CNBC.
"One year later, thanks to the incredible passion of Chris and Phil, who flew to New York and shared their vision with Sarah, Julie, Alissa and Ira for what the series could be, we're moving forward on this exciting project. What you have here is a 'once every ten years creative storytelling phenom' with a 'once in ten years take' with a 'once in twenty-five years creative team.'"
While the writer for the TV adaptation has is yet to be determined, Salke remains confident they'll "attract a spectacular writer", adding that he was excited to pitching it to outlets in the near future.
The "Serial" podcast has already been commissioned for two more seasons, with the creators confirming to Maxim that the next series would look at Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant who was held captive by the Haqqani nerwork, a Taliban-allied group, for five years.
The next series for the podcast is expected to air this Fall.
—By CNBC's Alexandra Gibbs, follow her on Twitter @AlexGibbsy.