FBI help Fox on the case with drama series

The FBI is helping to develop a drama series about the crime-fighting agency, the first time it has cooperated on a new TV project in more than 40 years.

Tentatively titled "The FBI," the Fox series centers on an Iraq War vet who is appointed as the new head of the FBI's Critical Incidents Response Group -- a division involved in a range of cases, including kidnappings, hostage negotiations, hostage rescue and evidence collection.

"The FBI is one of those arenas that has been developed many times, but it hasn't been cracked in decades," said Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly.

It is the first TV series done with the agency's cooperation since the Efrem Zimbalist Jr.-starring drama "The F.B.I.," which ran on ABC from 1965-74.

The FBI, which has dramatically evolved since then, expanding into new areas such as terrorism and cyber crime, began looking for a primetime vehicle to reflect its new realities two years ago.

"We were looking to find someone that would do an FBI show based on real events, cases and characters that looked a little bit more like the real FBI than the shows that are on now, because reality is a lot more interesting than fiction," said John Miller, assistant director public affairs at the FBI and former ABC newsman.

There are several FBI-themed series on the air now, including CBS pair "Criminal Minds" and "Without a Trace" and Fox's "Bones."

The agency had been approached to get involved in TV projects before but always late in the development process.

"We sought to reverse-engineer the process -- to start with what the FBI really does as opposed to people coming up with an interesting television show and hammering us into it," Miller said.

He met with a number of producers until hitting it off with Imagine Television principal Brian Grazer, whose company is already partnered with Fox on the CIA drama "24." It became a pet project for Grazer, who personally pitched it to Reilly.

Unlike "24," "FBI" will not be serialized, Grazer said. "It will be strongly character driven, and the procedural part of it will be secondary to the characters," he said. "While '24' is heightened reality, this would be realistic series that would have the intensity and realism of a Ridley Scott movie."