Zooey Deschanel launches production company

Los Angeles: `New Girl` star Zooey Deschanel has launched a production company with her Hello Giggles partner Sophia Rossi, which has inked a two-year first-look deal with 20th Century Fox TV.

Under the pact, Deschanel and Rossi will develop new projects for the studio, reported Deadline. The two tried their hand at producing this season with `Must Be Nice`, a comedy written by `New Girl` consulting producer JJ Philbin and produced by 20th TV. Deschanel and Rossi executive produced that project with Molly McAleer (2 Broke Girls), their partner at female-centric Web site Hello Giggles, which the trio launched in 2011. "We have known Zooey as an actress through New Girl, and as we got to know her as a producer through the script she developed, we quickly realised that there is so much more to her," 20th TV chairman, Gary Newman said. "Zooey and Sophia have their finger on the pulse of young people and particularly young women, and we really responded to that." PTI