'Easy Rawlins': NBC developing series based on Walter Mosley novels

NBC is looking to get back into the private-eye genre with a series based on one of the most popular literary detectives of the past 20 years.

The network has bought a pitch from executive producer John Wells for a show based on Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels, Deadline reports. The character, an African-American World War II vet-turned-private detective, has starred in 10 novels and a short-story collection spanning the mid-1940s to the late '60s.

The show would be set in the '60s. Mosley will write the pilot script with Cheo Coker, a writer and producer on "Southland" (which Wells also produces).

Easy Rawlins has appeared on screen once before -- Denzel Washington played him in the underrated 1995 movie "Devil in a Blue Dress," based on the first book in the series. USA had a project based on the character in the works a few years ago, Deadline notes, but it didn't get off the ground.

Do you like the idea of an Easy Rawlins series? Who do see playing the character?