Director Kevin Smith has been tapped to be the show-runner for CW's upcoming series The Reaper, reports Variety. He joins exec producer Mark Gordon ("Grey's Anatomy") on the comedy-drama series about a 21-year-old slacker who gets tapped to be the Devil's bounty hunter. No casting information has been released yet, though filming is scheduled to start next month.

Smoth is no stranger to producing for a television series. He also ran the animated adaptation of his cult hit film "Clerks," about a pair of slackers who work behind the counter at adjoining stores in a New Jersey stripmall. The original movie spawned five (so far) sequels in the same universe: "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," and the recent "Clerks 2." Smith has appeared in all of these films as Silent Bob, the laconic half of a drug-dealing duo headed by the foul-mouthed but hilarious Jay (Jason Mewes). The animated series never enjoyed the ratings success of its live-action cousins, and was cancelled by ABC after only a few episodes.

In related news from the netling, James Frawley ("The Muppet Movie") will helm an as-yet untitled project with Maggie Friedman about a young woman with magical powers. CW is still aiming for the brass ring its parent networks WB and UPN seized in previous years with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Smallville, and the genre-popular but ratings-dieting Supernatural.