DeVon Franklin is producing a funeral home drama entitled Closure. The one-hour drama is based on the life of baseball Hall of Famer-turned-funeral home owner Andre Dawson.
The show comes from Samantha Corbin-Miller, DeVon Franklin and his Franklin Entertainment and CBS Television Studios, where Franklin is under an overall deal.
Corbin-Miller wrote the script for the funeral home drama. It centers on a beloved baseball Hall of Famer who takes over his uncle’s funeral home. The career change is sparked after the unsolved disappearance of his adult son. Rocked by his family’s loss, he and his three daughters — a homicide detective, coroner, and trauma nurse, who each have their own parallel journeys in the business of death — commit themselves to help others find the peace and closure their family hasn’t been able to yet.
This sounds very, very interesting, and refreshing.
Corbin-Miller and Franklin are executive producing the TV show which CBS has put into development. Jenna Nicholson, VP Television for Franklin Entertainment, will co-executive produce. Dawson will serve as a consultant. CBS Television Studios is the studio.
Dawson is a former professional baseball player and Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. Within his 21-year career, he played as an outfielder for the Montreal Expos (1976–1986) and Chicago Cubs (1987–1992). In 1992, he signed with the Boston Red Sox as a free agent where he played for two seasons. He went on to the Florida Marlins, but knee problems forced his retirement after the 1996 season.
Nearly a decade into retirement, Dawson began his new carer chapter as a funeral home business owner. In 2003, he invested in Paradise Memorial, which was a funeral home that his younger brother owned. In 2008 he became the owner and operator of the Florida-based home which the funeral home drama is about.
Dawson released his autobiography If You Love This Game: An MVP’s Life in Baseball in May 2012.
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Corbin-Miller is currently an executive producer on Debris at NBC and previously on Swagger, Apple’s new basketball-themed drama series from NBA superstar Kevin Durant, Shots Fired co-creator Reggie Rock Bythewood, Imagine Television Studios and CBS TV Studios. She served as an executive producer on the second season of Amazon’s Absentia, and her other previous credits include Conviction and Law & Order: SVU.
Closure is Franklin’s first project under his CBS TV Studios deal. On the film side, he most recently produced the inspirational film Breakthrough, the Sony Pictures Animation film The Starring and Sony’s Miracles From Heaven.