Jake Johnson cast in NBC comedy pilot from creators Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Actor Jake Johnson (New Girl) has landed the lead role in a new comedy pilot from NBC. The yet-to-be-titled NBC series featuring Jake Johnson revolves around a private detective in Los Angeles. The series is being developed by Daniel J. Goor and Luke Del Tredici, who previously collaborated on the Fox/NBC comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The pilot is directed by Akiva Schaffer, who was recently involved in the new film version of The Naked Gun.


Jake Johnson

In the series, Johnson plays the character Mickey, a smart but cynical private detective who tries to hide that he is still broken by events from his past. Mickey used to work for the Los Angeles police, but his life collapsed three years earlier. Since then, he has tried to continue his career as a private detective, a profession in which his sharp instincts and quirky approach come in handy.

The creators describe the series as a modern addition to the tradition of private detective stories in Los Angeles that began with the famous fictional character Philip Marlowe.

With this role, Johnson joins a notable group of actors who previously starred in popular series on Fox and are now leading pilots for NBC. Among them are his former New Girl colleague Damon Wayans Jr., who stars in the pilot Puzzled, as well as David Boreanaz in a new version of The Rockford Files, Emily Deschanel in an as-yet-untitled drama about a criminal profiler, Peter Krause in the series Protection, and Jane Lynch in a comedy pilot alongside Katey Sagal.

In addition to this new series, Johnson has several other projects in development. He stars alongside Dakota Fanning in the film The Sun Never Sets, directed by Joe Swanberg, which premieres in March at the South by Southwest film festival. He is also working on two projects for Apple TV: the feature film comedy The Dink and the series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, both expected later this year.