New creative team coming on board series

"Crash" will hurtle into a second season on Starz with some new people behind the wheel of the series.

Starz said Tuesday (Feb. 24) that it's picking up the show, based on the 2006 best picture winner, for a new season that will premiere in the fall. When it does, though, it will come with a new show-running team in place.

Ira Steven Behr ("The 4400") has been hired as showrunner for the new season. He'll be joined by executive producer James DeMonaco and supervising producer Todd Harthan, who produced Spike TV's miniseries "The Kill Point."

"The Shield" veteran Glen Mazzara, who was showrunner in the first season, will remain a consulting producer.

"'Crash' has been, and will be, an important part of our originals strategy," says Stephan Shelanski, head of original programming at Starz. With Ira, James and Todd on board, we feel it's going to get stronger with each year and keep building on the success we established in the first year."

Some casting changes for the show may be in the offing as well, although Starz hasn't been specific. Dennis Hopper is among those slated to return.

Starz is making a push into original series. In addition to "Crash," the cable channel has a second season of its comedy "Head Case" and new series "Party Down" scheduled to premiere in March.