By DAVID BRINNphil rosenthal 88(photo credit: )Everybody Loves Raymond creator and executive producer Phil Rosenthal is teaming up with Dreamworks Studio and Tel Aviv-based TTV Production to produce a six-hour documentary series focusing on Jerusalem through the eyes of Sha'are Zedek Hospital.
Scheduled for release in 2011, the as yet unnamed project is going to highlight contemporary Jerusalem and reveal the various social, political and cultural nuances that characterize the city through the lives of doctors and nurses in the hospital.
Working along with Rosenthal - who's wife Monica played the role of Robert's wife Amy on the long-lived comedy series starring Ray Romano - will be screenwriter Jeremy Garelick, who recently wrote the hit comedy The Hangover, and veteran Israeli producer and head of TTV, Zafrir Kochanovsky.
"Jerusalem is a place that demands to be explored through the medium of documentary filmmaking and we believe that medicine is a perfect conduit to do so," Rosenthal said in a press release. "Dreamworks has long sought to create a documentary piece that conveys Jerusalem but we wanted to avoid limiting it to the more obvious undertones of politics or religion. In discovering Sha'are Zedek we believe we have found a perspective that allows us to tell this story in an original and no doubt captivating way."
"We are deeply proud and honored to have been selected by Dreamworks and TTV for this historic project," said Professor Jonathan Halevy, director-general of Sha'are Zedek. "Our hospital has long played a storied role in our city's history and we know this film will enable the world to better understand both what Jerusalem and we are all about."
The Rosenthals will be visiting Israel later this week to meet with Kochanovsky and his team and discuss the script. They will also attend a benefit evening - Everybody Loves Sha'are Zedek - for the hospital's new Wilf Children's Hospital. The benefit will include multimedia presentations by the Rosenthals focusing on the power of humor and their experiences in developing one of television's most successful sitcoms.
