LOS ANGELES • Film-maker David O. Russell has tapped Oscar-winners Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore to star in a new television series, reports said on Tuesday.

The as-yet-untitled show will be a crime thriller, possibly set in the 1990s, and set to run for several seasons, said film website Deadline.

The project is reportedly being offered to cable and streaming outlets and garnering several competitive offers.

Russell - whose films include the 2013 crime comedy American Hustle and the 2012 romantic drama Silver Linings Playbook - executive-produced Syfy's Outer Space Astronauts, but has never directed a television series.

In 2014, he co-wrote a show set in a country club, ABC's The Club, but left the project without explanation and the series never aired.

Moore is no stranger to the small screen, having won an Emmy for playing Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin in the 2012 HBO telefilm Game Change.

De Niro, who worked with Russell on Silver Linings Playbook and the 2015 biopic Joy, is due to appear as financier Bernie Madoff in HBO's telefilm The Wizard Of Lies.

Both Moore and De Niro have also appeared as guest stars on the comedy 30 Rock (2006-2013). Movie stars were at one time hardly ever seen in television series but, in recent years, some of the most- talked-about performances by Hollywood big names have been on the small screen.

HBO's True Detective, which debuted in 2014, starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Perhaps the most successful of all is Netflix's political drama House Of Cards (2013-present), with Kevin Spacey in the lead role.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE