'Crash' TV series on way to Starz

Oscar winning movie Crash will be made into a television series for premium cable channel Starz.

Co-writer and director Paul Haggis will return as executive producer for a run of 13 hour-long instalments. Don Cheadle, who starred in the 2004 original, will return as producer and possibly may appear on screen as well. Lionsgate, which made the original, will produce the series.

The series is expected to start in August and continue the story, with its themes of racism, from where the movie left off.

Cheadle said: "It will present an opportunity to delve into many subjects, not just race relations in LA."

No casting has been finalised and stars of the original, who included Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon and Ryan Philippe, are unlikely to return.

However, Starz programming executive Stephan Shelanski said: "We're just going to rely on the strength of the material and the relationship that Don Cheadle and Paul Haggis had to get the original cast involved.

"We're talking to everybody. We would love to have as many of the cast members from this film as possible reprise their roles."

Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate president of programming and production, said: "We’ll use the style of storytelling from the movie. But there’ll be new characters and new stories to get into the subjects of race and class, and the bigotry that’s simmering under the skin of a city like Los Angeles."

It will be Starz's first original drama and Shelanski commented: "This is a big step up financially for us. An average production cost for a broadcast-network hour is about $2.5m per episode, and Crash is unlikely to cost any less than that. Starz and Lionsgate will share in the production cost."