Longtime Trek writer Joe Menosky has just received the go-ahead from the Sci Fi Channel to begin production on Anonymous Rex, based on the series by Eric Garcia.

The Hollywood Reporter announced that the Sci Fi Channel had ordered Anonymous Rex as a two hour movie and backdoor pilot, with the option to pick up the show as a series if it performs well. Menosky, who served as co-excutive producer on Star Trek: Voyager and penned episodes such as The Next Generation's "The Nth Degree," Deep Space Nine's "Dramatis Personae," and Voyager's "The Gift," will write the pilot. Julian Jerrold (Great Expectations) has been called on to direct it. Filming will begin in March.

The hero of Anonymous Rex is Vincent Rubio, a private detective who just happens to be a velociraptor. In Garcia's novels, dinosaurs make up five percent of the population, and disguise themselves to fit in with humans. Luckily, the dinosaurs have evolved so that they're relatively human-sized. Menosky based the script for Anonymous Rex off the book's prequel, Casual Rex. In Casual Rex, Vincent is roped into helping his partner's ex-wife, whose brother has become entangled in a vampire cult. Garcia is also the author of the original Anonymous Rex and Hot and Sweaty Rex, which both feature Vincent, as well as Matchstick Men, which was turned into a movie starring Nicolas Cage and Alison Lohman.

In addition to the pilot episode, Sci Fi has commissioned two more scripts. Development on Anonymous Rex began in 2000, after Sci Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer read Anonymous Rex, the first novel published in the series.

Mark Stern, Sci Fi Channel's vice president of original programming feels that the technology available today makes translating Garcia's novels to television possible. "It feels like this is the time for this concept to come to fruition," he said. "I think the technology is really in the right place, and we can execute the dinosaurs and the fantasy elements in the right way for the money."

The complete story can be found at Reuters.

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