NBC announces gene-editing drama starring J-Lo
Jennifer Lopez will executive produce and star in a forthcoming new procedural drama for NBC called C.R.I.S.P.R. The show, set five minutes in the future, explores the terror wrought by DNA hacking. The two central characters, a scientist with the CDC and an FBI agent, battle an evil genius for "control over the human genome in a game of cat and mouse in which the future of our species may rest and all disease could one day be eradicated."

NBC is reteaming with Jennifer Lopez for a futuristic procedural.

The network has handed out a script order to drama C.R.I.S.P.R., which is being produced by the Shades of Blue star, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

C.R.I.S.P.R.— aka ” clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” — is a procedural thriller set five minutes into the future that explores the next generation of terror: DNA hacking. If the project moves forward, each episode will explore a bio-attack and crime — from a genetic assassination attempt on the president to the framing of an unborn child for murder. The show’s central character is a scientist with the CDC who is paired with an FBI agent. In the same vein of Castle, romance will blossom between the scientist and the FBI agent as they team to bring down a diabolical genius with a twisted God complex: her former boss. The drama will see mentor and protégé battle for control over the human genome in a game of cat and mouse in which the future of our species may rest and all disease could one day be eradicated.

Anthony Cipriano (Bates Motel) will pen the script and executive produce alongside Lopez and her Universal Television-based Nuyorican Productions. Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas also will exec produce via her EGTV banner alongside Benny Medina and Fascination Street’s Drew Brown. Nuyorican head of development Priscilla Porianda is set as a co-exec producer.

C.R.I.S.P.R. marks the latest collaboration for Lopez with NBC. In addition to starring and exec producing sophomore drama Shades of Blue, Lopez will exec produce and serve as a judge on dance competition series World of Dance. The prolific actress-producer also has an untitled legal drama set up at CBS this development season. She next will play drug lord Griselda Blanco in an HBO TV movie.

Lopez, Goldsmith-Thomas, Porianda and Brown are repped by CAA; Cipriano is with APA, Energy Entertainment and McKuin Frankel.