John Leguizamo To Star in ABC Comedy Project Based on His Life

ABC really wants to be in the John Leguizamo business. Just days after it passed on the pilot Kings of Van Nuys, which had starred Leguizamo, the network has picked up another project based loosely on the actor's life.

The new untitled Leguizamo comedy script is inspired by the comedian's fish-out-of-water existence as a husband and father on New York's Upper West Side. Leguizamo finds himself juggling his privileged lifestyle — including kids that he worries are too spoiled and losing touch with reality — with his friends and life back in the Bronx. Keeping him grounded and in touch with his Latin roots are Leguizamo's mother and grandfather.

Leguizamo, who's been looking to return to TV for a while, would star. Chris Sheridan (Family Guy) is writing the teleplay and will executive produce along with Leguizamo. (Both Sheridan and Leguizamo will get co-writer credit for the story). ABC Studios, Mandeville and The Collective are also behind the show.

Kings of Van Nuys was based on the UK comedy Only Fools and Horses, and also was set to star Dustin Ybarra, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Christopher Lloyd. The show centered on Leguizamo and Ybarra as brothers looking to find new schemes to make quick money. It was the second attempt by ABC to adapt the British show, having also produced a pilot (under its original UK title) the previous season.

Leguizamo's previous TV credits include Spike TV's The Kill Point, a season of NBC's ER and the Fox sketch comedy House of Buggin'. The actor, who this year returned as the voice of Sid the Sloth in the animated feature Ice Age: Continental Drift, is poised to star opposite Ice Cube and Kevin Hart in the upcoming movie Ride Along.