Russia rebuilds House

Hugh Laurie in the original version of House

Russia Television and Radio has ordered the first remake of NBCUniversal International Formats drama House and will air it on flagship channel Rossiya 1.

The 40×44’ series will start production in April, with a transmission date to be confirmed by the channel later this year.

The Russian version of the show, about a genius maverick doctor, will be produced by local prodco Non-Stop Production.

The original US series was produced by Universal Television for the Fox network and starred Hugh Laurie as Dr Gregory House throughout its eight seasons. Aleksei Serebryakov will lead the cast of the Russian version, which was was commissioned by Anton Zlatopolskiy, first deputy director for Russia Television and Radio.

It will be executive produced by Ekaterina Efanova for Rossiya 1 and Sergey Melkumov and Alexander Rodnyansky for Non-Stop Production.

Hannah Worrall, VP of format sales and production at NBCU, said: “With 177 original episodes available for adaptation, this has the potential to be a long-running success on Rossiya 1, just as the US series has been for so many broadcast partners globally.”

NBCUniversal International Formats is the global sales arm for all formats created within the production and broadcast divisions of NBCUniversal, with a slate including shows from NBC, Bravo!, Oxygen, Syfy and E!.