John Ridley has sold a new crime drama pilot to ABC titled “Presence," which will follow a former Army Counter Insurgency Operative named Presence Foster, beginning a new career as a private investigator in Los Angeles.

Ridley, who recently inked an overall deal with ABC that will see the writer/director/producer develop new projects for the studio, will write, direct and exec produce "Presence," which ABC Studios will produce.

With his "American Crime" anthology series already on ABC, Ridley is seemingly suddenly a creative in demand (post his Oscar win for scripting "12 Years a Slave," last year); There’s also the scripting he’s doing for MGM’s remake of the classic sword-and-sandals epic "Ben-Hur;" and, announced most recently, he’s developing a new Marvel series also for ABC, which is being described as a "reinvention" of an existing Marvel superhero character; although no word on who that character is, as details are being kept under wraps.