Julian Fellowes is developing a period drama for NBC. The Downton Abbey creator's show The Gilded Age - which follows the rich and powerful inhabitants of New York in the 1880s - has been described by the channel as "an epic tale of the princes of the American Renaissance, and the vast fortunes they made - and spent."

Julian - who will write and produce The Gilded Age - told TVLine, "This was a vivid time with dizzying, brilliant ascents and calamitous falls, of record-breaking ostentation and savage rivalry; a time when money was king."

News of the show comes not long after rival channel ABC declined to pick up Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes' similar drama pilot Gilded Lilys.

Julian will be kept busy as Downton Abbey was recently commissioned for a fourth season with Gareth Neame, Managing Director of Carnival Films, the show's makers crediting him for its success: "Not only is he a superb craftsman, he also has an extraordinary work ethic. It is a mammoth undertaking to write all those episodes.

''The main credit for the success of Downton is by far and away down to Julian. I've not had the fortune to work with anyone else who combines so many talents. Julian knows that you want a core group of characters who almost become an extension of your family. But you also need new blood coming in to shake things up a bit."