EXCLUSIVE: Todd Strauss-Schulson and Adam Devine are reuniting for a third time as the former has signed on to direct and exec produce the pilot episode of Peacock’s Pitch Perfect (w/t) spinoff series.
Strauss-Schulson worked with the actor on 2015 comedy slasher film The Final Girls and 2019 rom-com Isn’t Is Romantic.
He will direct the first two episodes of the series and exec produce the pilot episode.
Richie Keen, who directed Peacock’s Bust Down and NBC’s Kenan, is the producing director and an exec producer across the season.
The Pitch Perfect series, which has received a straight-to-series order at the NBCU streamer, follows Devine’s vocal villain Bumper Allen, several years after the events in the films. Invited by his old friend Pieter Krämer (Flula Borg), Bumper moves to Germany to revive his music career when one of his songs becomes big in Berlin. Pieter has transitioned from German a cappella star to discredited German music manager. He signs Bumper as his only client and brings him to Berlin to pursue his dreams.
2022 Fox Pilots & Series Orders
The series comes from Universal Television and is exec produced by Elizabeth Banks, who starred in and produced the films and directed the second movie.
Banks and Max Handelman will exec produce via Brownstone Productions, along with Gold Circle Films’ Paul Brooks and Scott Neimeyer as well as Devine and Megan Amram.
It marks feature film director Strauss-Schulson’s return to directing television; he helmed episodes of Amazon’s Betas and MTV’s Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous and The Inbetweeners. He also directed A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.
He also recently wrapped feature film Silent Retreat for Miramax, which he wrote with Matthew Fogel. It stars Isabella Rossellini, Jack Whitehall and Larry Owens.
Strauss-Schulson is represented by WME, 3 Arts and Johnson Shapiro Slewett Kole.