Zayn Teams With Law & Order Creator For Boy Band Drama Series

Zayn Malik and Dick Wolf are teaming up. The former One Direction member will partner with the Law & Order honcho to produce a new boy band one-hour drama for NBC, The Hollywood Reporter reports. "Titled Boys, the project centers on the formation of a hugely successful boy band and captures all the excitement, competition and fun, but also takes an inside look into the pressure that comes with the success," THR writes. NBC most likely hopes that this will be their Empire. That is to say, a music show with a diverse cast that can generate music rights and siphon viewers away from the Fox behemoth. One unexplored avenue of the Fox show is as a star-making venue. NBCUniversal also features Universal Music Group, which gives it an inside track on featuring established acts on Boys. Not only that, but if a single needs breaking, there's now an obvious deployment system. So the move is a canny one, provided that the show actually makes it onto the air, is of high quality, and has staying power. It's a tall order for any prospective TV show, though perhaps less for one with this kind of creative team.