'Oliver Twist' getting TV update, gender swap

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Enriched Classic edition

The classic Charles Dickens novel "Oliver Twist" is receiving the remake treatment at NBC, with the title character now a 20-something, crime-fighting female.

Film producer Joel Silver is on board for the contemporization, The Hollywood Reporter announced, while Lionsgate is also on board.

The treatment is to be a "sexy contemporary take" with its Twist finding "a true sense of family in a strange group of talented outcasts."

Silver is well known for his film industry exploits -- he produced the "Lethal Weapon" and "Matrix" films and more recently the "Sherlock Holmes" movies and Shane Black's "The Nice Guys" -- but he has also been involved with TV by way of shows like "Tales From the Crypt," "Moonlight," and "Veronica Mars."