HBO to Make Series of Ladies Detective Agency

HBO will air The No 1. Ladies Detective Agency, starring Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose, as a series, beginning in 2009. A two-hour pilot, filmed by Oscar winner Anthony Minghella, has already been completed, with filming on the series tentatively set to begin in August, according to Variety.

The show, based on a series of books by Alexander McCall Smith, focuses on Precious Ramotswe, the female owner of a detective agency in Botswana, to be played by Jill Scott. Rose will play her loyal secretary.

Rose is currently starring on Broadway as Maggie in the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She received the Tony for Caroline, or Change and was also part of the Obie-winning cast of Eli’s Comin’. She played the role of Lorrell in the film version of Dreamgirls and co-starred in the recent USA-TV miniseries The Starter Wife.
She will voice the role of Princess Tiana in the Disney animated film The Princess and the Frog, which is scheduled to be released in 2009.

Minghella won the Oscar for his direction of The English Patient. His other films include Cold Mountain and Breaking and Entering. He directed the acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly presented last season at the Metropolitan Opera, and is also a noted playwright.