Malcolm D. Lee to Develop Drama ‘Need to Know’ at NBC, ‘Becoming Marlow Fin’ at Peacock

Malcolm D. Lee is attached to direct and executive produce a pair of projects at NBC and Peacock under his Blackmaled Productions banner, Variety has learned. Universal Television, where Lee and Blackmaled are under a first-look deal will produce both shows.

The NBC project is titled “Need to Know” and has Taye Diggs (“All American,” “The Best Man”) attached to star and executive produce. The logline for the project states, “Inspired by true events, a spy procedural about a battle-scarred CIA veteran who must team up with a cocky young officer as they run the CIA’s most daring operations from a secret base in South Florida.”

Alexander Maggio (“FBI,” “Madam Secretary”) wrote the pilot and will executive produce. Should the project go to series, Terence Paul Winter (“Boston Blue,” “The Equalizer”) would serve as writer and executive producer. Dominique Telson, Jerry O’Shea, and John Sipher of Spycraft Entertainment also executive produce with Michael Scott Allen and Rachel Harner co-executive producing.

The Peacock project is titled “Becoming Marlow Fin,” based on the book of the same name Ellen Won Steil. The logline states, “Over the course of an explosive primetime interview, global superstar Marlow Fin’s mysterious life is revealed as she recounts the events leading up to the disappearance of her sister and publicly makes the case for her innocence as the prime suspect in her presumed murder.”

Des Moran (“A Different World” sequel at Netflix, “Tiny Beautiful Things”) is the writer and executive producer. Won also executive produces along with Dominque Telson and Michael Scott Allen.

(Pictured, left to right: Malcolm D. Lee, Taye Diggs, Terence Paul Winter, Alexander Maggio, Des Moran)