The director of the Matthew McConaughey feature "The Lincoln Lawyer" has joined a project that aims to bring the James Patterson book series "Private" to television as a drama series.

Deadline.com reports that Brad Furman, who directed the 2011 thriller "The Lincoln Lawyer," is set to direct the TV drama.

The effort has been pitched as a straight-to-series project, with Sonar Entertainment producing. John McLaughlin of "The Black Swan" has written the two-episode pilot and will write additional episodes, while Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal of Tribeca Productions have joined as executive producers.

The project is about a former CIA agent named Jack Morgan who becomes a private detective.