Rainn Wilson Will Front ‘The Office’ Spinoff

NBC is working on an Office spinoff built around Rainn Wilson’s alter ego, Dwight Schrute.

The actor, who plays the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company employee on the NBC comedy, is working with The Office producer/showrunner Paul Lieberstein on an untitled companion series that will premiere in early 2013, Deadline Hollywood said Wednesday.

Plans for an Office spinoff first announced in April 2008. The series was later shelved in order for the network to further develop of the Amy Poeher-assisted side-splitter Parks and Recreation.

The proposed show is described as a “family comedy” that will focus on Dwight’s life at his family beet farm and bed & breakfast, Schrute Farms. The plot will be introduced in an episode of The Office airing later this season.

“Paul and Rainn have been joking for years about Dwight’s life on the farm, his family and how ill-suited he is to run a B&B. A while ago, it started to feel like a show to them,” a source close to the production told the website.

“NBC agreed, it’s been further developed to include multiple generations, many cousins and neighbors…At its base it will be about a family farm struggling to survive and a family trying to stay together.”

Wilson and Lieberstein are lined up to executive produce the spinoff, alongside Office executive producers Ben Silverman and Howard Klein.