Showtime Developing 'The Good Shepherd' as a TV Series With Robert De Niro to Direct

Robert De Niro's 2006 period espionage drama "The Good Shepherd" is on its way to becoming a TV series.

Deadline reports that Showtime is developing the potential spy show, with the film's writer Eric Roth (an Oscar-winner for "Forrest Gump") on board to write and executive produce the adaptation. The plan was initially to make a sequel film to the original, but the story's instead being segued over to a serialized drama for the small screen. De Niro's still slated to direct, the first time he's done so for a TV project. 

Similar to the movie, which followed a fictional character (played by Matt Damon) in his involvement in the establishment of the CIA and its effect in his personal life, "The Good Shepherd" TV series will focus on the family of one of the agency's operatives.

If "The Good Shepherd" is picked up to series, it will be the first one Roth has created since 1992's band drama "The Heights" -- though he is attached to "House of Cards" as an executive producer and served in the same role on the late, lamented "Luck."

READ MORE: David O. Russell Will Direct a Father-Daughter Legal Drama for CBS Written by Danny Strong of 'Game Change'

De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Productions were responsible for the Richard Price-created CBS cop show "NYC 22," which was cancelled not far into its first season. The production company's already got a new project at the network -- a family medical drama from TV writer/playwright Diana Son ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent") about a high-rnaking surgeon and new single mother trying to balance her work and home lives.

Tribeca Productions also recently sold a father-daughter legal drama to CBS, with "I Heart Huckabees" filmmaker David O. Russell slated to direct.