Filmmaker David Fincher has finalized a deal with HBO for his crime noir series Shakedown with James Ellroy, which was first announced back in September. Additionally, the filmmaker has also signed on to executive produce and direct the pilot episode of yet another HBO series, entitled Living on Video. These deals expand his growing relationship with HBO, where he is also developing another series entitled Utopia, alongside Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn.

Shakedown is an adaptation of James Ellroy's 2012 novella of the same name, with the author also providing the pilot script. The story is set in 1950s Los Angeles, loosely inspired by the life of L.A. vice cop turned private detective Fred Otash. James Ellroy had previously developed his script at FX with a different producing team, before the project shifted to HBO. No story details have been released at this time, but both David Fincher and James Ellroy will serve as executive producers alongside Joshua Donen, Clark Peterson, and Steven Hoban.

David Fincher is also teaming up with Shakedown producer Joshua Donen on Living on Video, a half-hour comedy series set in the 1980s, following the crews who worked on early music videos. David Fincher is set to direct the pilot episode and executive produce alongside Joshua Donen and Cean Chaffin. Our report from September about Shakedown revealed that David Fincher is focusing all of his efforts on television projects, since he believes it is the, "path of least resistance," as opposed to the movie studio system. The filmmaker still serves as an executive producer on Netflix's House of Cards, but he isn't creatively involved with the show at this point.