Jake Johnson to Play Private Eye in NBC Comedy Pilot

NBC has cast the lead role in another of its pilots — in this case tapping Jake Johnson to lead a comedy about an L.A. private investigator.

Johnson (New Girl, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) will star in the currently untitled show from Brooklyn Nine-Nine alumni Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici. The pilot, produced by Universal Television, has also signed Akiva Schaffer (last year’s The Naked Gun) to direct.

Johnson’s casting also continues a run of actors who had roles on Fox series in the 2010s leading NBC pilots this year. He joins his New Girl co-star Damon Wayans Jr. (Puzzled), David Boreanaz (The Rockford Files), Emily Deschanel (an untitled criminal profiler drama), Peter Krause (Protection) and Jane Lynch (a comedy with Katey Sagal).

The logline for Goor and Del Tredici’s single-camera comedy describes it as “continuing the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show.” Johnson will play Mickey, a smart, cynical and heartbroken — but trying to pretend he’s not — private investigator with a knack for the job. He was an LAPD officer until his life fell apart three years ago.

Goor and Del Tredici are writing the pilot and will executive produce alongside Schaffer. Johnson is a producer.

Johnson next stars with Dakota Fanning in The Sun Never Sets from filmmaker Joe Swanberg, which is set to premiere at SXSW in March. He also has two Apple TV projects on tap for later this year — The Dink, a feature comedy about pickleball, and the series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed. He is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen.