Ron Nyswaner to produce a new drama for CBS

Variety reports that out screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, Soldier's Girl) will make his first foray into series TV with a new deal to create a medical drama for CBS. He will executive-produce the show with 24 producer Tony Krantz and director Rodrigo Garcia, whose credits include the film Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her along with episodes of Six Feet Under and the upcoming Carnivale. "It's the other side of ER," Krantz told Variety. "If ER dealt with a single outpost, this show deals with the largest of frontiers in medicine." Nyswaner has written the pilot, which Garcia will direct if CBS makes a pilot order. The two have worked together before: Nyswaner collaborated with Garcia on a script at the Sundance screenwriters' lab when the former was an adviser there. "It was very natural for my first adventure in [series] television to go to someone I know and really liked and who was really talented like Rodrigo," said Nyswaner. "If we hit the lottery and clear all the hurdles there are to making a series and getting it on the air, I'm intrigued by the idea of being able to stick by characters for days and months and really discover them."