Bill Lawrence, WBTV Option Steven Rowley Novel ‘Take Me With You’

Bill Lawrence and Warner Bros. Television have optioned the brand new Steven Rowley novel “Take Me With You” with plans to adapt it as a series, Variety has learned exclusively.

The book was just published on May 19 by Putnam, an imprint of Penguin Random House. No writer is currently attached to the project. Lawrence will executive produce via Doozer Productions and its overall deal with WBTV along with Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer. Rowley and Rob Weisbach will also executive produce. WBTV is the studio.

The official description of the book states that it is about “college professor Jesse del Ruth who has been abandoned. Thirty years into their relationship, Jesse witnesses his husband Norman get out of bed late one night, walk into their Joshua Tree backyard, step into a strange beam of light and disappear. As Jesse struggles to understand Norman’s disappearance, he tries to piece together his new reality. Is he expected to wait patiently for a partner who may never come back? Or is this an opportunity for reinvention?”

Rowley has published seven novels to date. Along with “Take Me With You,” he is known for writing books like “Lily and the Octopus,” “The Editor,” “The Guncle,” “The Guncle Abroad,” “The Dogs of Venice,” and “The Celebrants.” For “The Guncle,” he was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

He is repped by CAA and Rob Weisbach Creative Management.

Lawrence’s current WBTV slate includes shows like “Shrinking,” “Ted Lasso,” and “Bad Monkey” at Apple TV, “Rooster” at HBO, and the upcoming “I Suck at Girls” at Netflix. He is also an executive producer on ABC’s revival of “Scrubs,” which is produced by 20th Television.