‘Marley & Me’ May Become an NBC Series

Get out those hankies…week after week after week, perhaps.

NBC has ordered a pilot for a TV series based on the heart-tugging book and movie, “Marley & Me,” according to Deadline Hollywood. The show will actually be a sequel to the story by John Grogan, following his family’s adventures A.M. (After Marley), when they take in an equally rascally stray puppy. His name? Marley, of course.

(This is not to be confused with “Marley & Me: The Puppy Years,” the 2011 prequel about the original Marley as a puppy. Who talked.)

If it’s picked up for a series, “Marley & Me” will focus on John and Jenny Grogan (portrayed by Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston in the movie) and their three kids, who return to Florida so the dog dad can resume his newspaper column.

David Frankel, director of “Marley & Me,” will also direct the TV pilot. It’s being written by Emmy winner Jenny Bicks, who also wrote for “Sex and The City” (including the episode, “Old Dogs, New Dicks,” which was not, er, actually about old dogs.) The cast of “Marley & Me” has not yet been announced.

“Marley & Me” grossed a whopping $243 million dollars at the box office in 2008. (Tissue manufacturers also probably did very well that year.)

Will the TV version be as popular? (“The original Marley must be rolling over in his grave,” wrote one skeptical commenter on the Deadline Hollywood story.) It remains to be seen whether Marley will be able to give Lassie a run for her money as the most popular TV dog ever.

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