As the final season of the “The Wire” has reached an end, HBO has ordered up 13 episodes of a new drama series, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” which is based on the popular crime-book series by Alexander McCall Smith. The drama will star R&B singer Jill Scott, who will play the role of Precious Ramotswe, the owner of Botswana’s only female-led detective agency in the southern African nation.

For this project, the network has closed a deal with Weinstein Co., the BBC and filmmakers Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis, who are going to be the executive-producers of the new drama series. According to Variety, Richard Plepler, co-proxy of HBO said that “the opportunity to work with exceptionally gifted Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis makes the project all the more exciting.”

While, HBO will control TV and home-video rights in the U.S. and Canada, and BBC will handle the U.K. television distribution, Weinstein Co. will control all other international rights. The TWC co-topper Harvey Weinstein said according to the Variety that he was extremely glad to have the opportunity to work with HBO on this project, “it’s always been a dream of mine to produce a series for HBO. I’ve often called there to tell them that they make better episodes than we make movies.”

Variety also reports that HBO is willing to launch “The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by the first quarter of the next year. Michael Lombardo, prexy of the network’s programming group and West Coast operations, said the shootings are probably going to take place in Botswana and London.

The crime series will also feature Anika Noni Rose, who will play Ramotswe’s secretary and also Lucien Msamati as the female-detective’s love interest.