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[09/25/12 - 11:04 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, September 25
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:

Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our signature "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!


EDISON (NBC, New!) - Daniel C. Connolly ("Longmire") has booked a period drama at the Peacock about a fictionalized version of famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison in 1880s Manhattan where he serves as "a secret consultant to the under-trained and under-equipped New York Police force." Sony Pictures Television is behind the hour with John Shiban and Gran Via Productions' Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein also serving as executive producers. (Deadline.com)


FAMILY AFFAIR (NBC, New!) - Sara Goodman ("Gossip Girl") has received a put pilot order from the network for a potential drama about "two families in a small Connecticut town who are thrown together when an accident claims the lives of a mother and father who were having an affair." Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Television is behind the hour with Greg Berlanti executive producing alongside Goodman and Melissa Kellner Berman serving as a co-executive producer. (THR.com)


NAPA (NBC, New!) - Tom Donaghy ("The Whole Truth") has snagged a put pilot commitment from the Peacock for a new drama billed as a modern day take on Emily Bronte's novel "Wuthering Heights." The 1847 tome "centers on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them." No other details were given about the new incarnation, which will be set in California's Napa Valley. Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Television is behind the hour with Donaghy and Greg Berlanti serving as executive producers and Melissa Kellner Berman as a co-executive producer. (THR.com)


SOLVE FOR X (CBS, New!) - "The L Word" creator Ilene Chaiken has sold a potential drama to the Eye about "a young game developer at a social gaming company in San Francisco who agrees to consult for an anti-crime task force." CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with The Tannenbaum Company's Eric and Kim Tannenbaum executive producing alongside Chaiken. (THR.com)


TROUPE STARS (ABC, New!) - 5 Streams Global Entertainment has booked an eight-episode order from the Alphabet billed as "a military singing reality show where current and former soldiers will show off their performance skills." No auspices were given for the project, which has been given the blessing of the U.S. military however the government is not involved in the series. (EW.com)


UNTITLED ANDREW MILLER PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Andrew Miller ("The Secret Circle") has sold a potential drama set in the world of Texas ranches and rodeos to the network described as "a soap exploring two families on either side of the American dream and their fight for love, respect and glory." 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour with Miller writing and executive producing alongside Ruben Fleischer ("Gangster Squad"). (THR.com)


UNTITLED HOLLY SORENSEN PROJECT (ABC, New!) - "Make It or Break It" creator Holly Sorensen has sold a new drama to the Alphabet about "three very average girls who break into New York's beauty industry with a product that holds a wicked secret." Sorensen conceived the hour alongside Irish actress Victoria Smurfit and will pen the script for the ABC Studios-based The Mark Gordon Company. Gordon, Sorensen and Nick Pepper are the executive producers. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED MATTHEW MILLER PROJECT (ABC, New!) - "Chuck" alum Matthew Miller has set up a potential drama at the Alphabet about "two bright young lawyers who struggle to enter a depleted job market [and] are left with no other choice but to work for an ambulance chaser whose smiling, mustachioed face is regularly advertised on public buses." He'll write and executive produce the Warner Bros. Television-based hour with Fake Empire's Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein also serving as executive producers. (THR.com)


WITCHES OF EAST END (Lifetime) - Nicholas Gonzalez ("Off the Map") has joined the cast of the drama pilot, about a mother (Julia Ormond) and her two adult daughters (Jenna Dewan, Rachel Boston) - both of whom unknowingly are their family's next generation of witches - who lead seemingly quiet, uneventful modern day lives in Long Island's secluded seaside town of North Hampton. He'll play Matthew, "a good-natured local cop who is dating a ditzy co-worker of Ingrid's (Boston) [who] becomes very busy at work when a series of murders and strange deaths bedevil his previously placid township." Killian Gardiner and Patrick Heusinger also star in the Fox 21-based hour, from writer Maggie Friedman and based on the book by Melissa de la Cruz. (Deadline.com)


WRONGFUL DEATH (ABC, New!) - Donald Todd ("Hart of Dixie") has sold a new drama to the Alphabet about "a former cop-turned-felon-turned Tampa insurance adjuster reluctantly teams with an energetic but unpolished millennial at a private investigation firm to investigate wrongful deaths." Warner Bros. Television-based Fake Empire is behind the project, which has a penalty attached. Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and Len Goldstein then will executive produce alongside Todd. (THR.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Brooke Lyons will guest on "Psych" as "an actress in an ill-fated musical" (Deadline.com); Lifetime is reportedly mulling a sequel to Jennifer Aniston and Marta Kauffman's breast cancer anthology "Five" (Deadline.com); "30 Rock" creator/star Tina Fey has inked a massive four-year overall deal with Universal Television (Variety.com); Bernadette Peters will return as the mother of Megan Hilty's Ivy on "Smash's" second season (Vulture.com); Annabeth Gish will guest on "Once Upon a Time" as "a charismatic, beautiful and mysterious leader of a pack of humans" (EW.com); and Claire Coffee's Adalind Schade has been upped to series regular on "Grimm" (Deadline.com).






  [may 2013]  
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· 30 ROCK (NBC)
· CALL ME CRAZY: A FIVE FILM (LIFETIME)
· CHUCK (NBC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· EDISON (NBC)
· FAMILY AFFAIR (NBC)
· FIVE (LIFETIME)
· GOSSIP GIRL (CW)
· GRIMM (NBC)
· HART OF DIXIE (CW)
· L WORD, THE (SHOWTIME)
· LONGMIRE (A AND E)
· MAKE IT OR BREAK IT (ABC FAMILY)
· NAPA (NBC)
· OFF THE MAP (ABC)
· ONCE UPON A TIME (ABC)
· PSYCH (USA)
· SECRET CIRCLE, THE (CW)
· SMASH (NBC)
· SOLVE FOR X (CBS)
· TROUPE STARS (ABC)
· UNTITLED ANDREW MILLER PROJECT (FOX)
· UNTITLED MATTHEW MILLER PROJECT (ABC)
· VAIN (ABC)
· WHOLE TRUTH, THE (ABC)
· WITCHES OF EAST END (LIFETIME)
· WRONGFUL DEATH (ABC)





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