Viewers to Go 'Cheek to Cheek' with Irving Berlin in New TV Series

Irving Berlin seems to be on everyone's mind! HOLIDAY INN is hitting the New York stage this season, and now the famed songwriter's life will also be at the center of a scripted TV series.

Deadline writes that Max Lewkowicz and Dog Green Productions have nabbed the rights from the composer's family and the Irving Berlin Music Company to use Berlin's life and music in IRVING (Working Title). The hourlong pilot is aiming for a 2018 debut.

Lewkowicz said in a statement: "This is a remarkable story that stretches across sinews of American and world history throughout the 20th century. Yet, it particularly resonates today with stories of immigrants and upheaval, war and peace, wealth and poverty and, through it all, man's unbroken desire to produce great art for all of us."

Elizabeth Irving Peters, daughter of Irving Berlin, said that she and her sisters "are particularly happy that a new generation will come to know his story and hear his songs that are so much a part of this country's heritage."

Lewkowicz is also set to executive produce with Theodore Chapin, president and executive director of Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company.

"The time seems especially right to tell the Irving Berlin story," Chapin commented. "It will depict a slice of American ambition, talent, humanity, struggle, and yes, luck. Irving Berlin lived at an extraordinary time in our history, and his story reflects the best of the American dream."

After traveling from Russia to America, Berlin eventually found himself writing songs for Broadway and Hollywood. He was one of the founders of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and was an original owner of Broadway's Music Box Theater. Among is iconic tunes, many of which are included in the Great American Songbook, are "White Christmas," "Blue Skies," "Cheek to Cheek" and more. He wrote the scores for 19 Broadway shows and his prolific catalog includes an estimated 1,500 songs.