Exclusive: 20th Television has closed a first-look deal with Angela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance and their Bassett Vance Productions to develop and executive produce comedy, drama, limited series and TV movies for linear networks and streamers, with an emphasis on platforms across Disney Entertainment Television.

The first project under the multi-year pact is Monkey Boy, inspired by bestselling author Francisco Goldman’s Pulitzer Prize fiction finalist novel, which has been set up for development at Onyx Collective. The drama is created by Joshua Allen Griffith (Mrs. America), who will write the pilot script, with Ben Smith supervising. If Monkey Boy goes to series, the duo, who met on 20th TV’s Hulu series Only Murders In The Building where they co-wrote multiple episodes, will write it, with Smith serving as showrunner. Griffith and Smith also executive produce with Bassett Vance Productions.

Goldman’s novel follows an investigative journalist who discovers...