ABC said Monday it has brought The Company You Keep to the series, with and executive producing This Is Us alum Milo Ventimiglia. The drama, produced by 20th Television, part of Disney Television Studios, was the last remaining “Second Cycle” pilot to know its fate, but was a consistent front-runner and a switch to a series pickup always saw promising.
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Like drama pilot Will Trent, who joined the series this month, The Company You Keep had opened a writers’ room in anticipation of a series order. The project had also brought on veteran writer and producer Phil Klemmer as a co-showrunner. It will debut on ABC in mid-season 2023.
2022 ABC pilot and series orders
The Company You Keep, starring Catherine Haena Kim, is based on the Korean format My Fellow Citizens, which ran for more than 30 episodes on KBS2. It’s about the fraudster Charlie (Ventimiglia) and the undercover CIA officer Emma (Kim). A passionate night leads to love between the two who are unknowingly on a collision course professionally. As Charlie ramps up the “family business” so he can get out for good, Emma tracks down the vengeful criminal who is controlling Charlie’s family debt – and forces her to reckon with the lies they’ve told to save themselves can and their families face catastrophic consequences.
William Fichtner, Tim Chiou, Freda Foh Shen, James Saito, Sarah Wayne Callies, Felisha Terrell and Polly Draper also star.
Julia Cohen and Klemmer serve as executive producers and co-showrunners. Ventimiglia and Russ Cundiff are executive producers for DiVide Pictures, along with Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu and Caitlin Foito for Electric Somewhere, and Todd Harthan and Lindsay Goffman. Deanna Harris (Divide Pictures) is a producer. The pilot episode was written by Cohen and directed and executive produced by Ben Younger.
Most recently, Klemmer co-created Legends of Tomorrow, which ran for seven seasons on the CW. He also worked on all seasons of Veronica Mars and Chuck, among others. He is represented by WME, OIy Obst at 3 Arts and Tom Collier at Sloan, Offer, Weber and Dern.