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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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BORDER SECURITY USA (ABC, New!) - Reality guru Arnold Shapiro ("Big Brother") has booked an 11-episode commitment at the Alphabet for a new reality series which takes a docu-style look at the men and women who handle homeland security. The one-hour project, which is based on the Australian format "Border Security: Australia's Front Line," is being shot in cooperation with such agencies as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Transportation Security Administration (TSA); U.S. Coast Guard; Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the Secret Service; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); and Customs and Border Protection/the Border Patrol. Each episode will focus on more than 10 intercut stories, which could include anything from a border patrol in Texas to security screeners at a New York airport to a Coast Guard boat off Puerto Rico. Shapiro then will executive produce via his self-titled banner.
COURTROOM K (FOX) - Jon Bernthal and Omar Benson Miller have both been cast in the pilot, a darkly comedic drama that revolves around a judge (Alfred Molina), a prosecutor (Michael Landes) and a public defender (Megan Dodds). The former will play a veteran police detective who is involved with Megan Dodds's character while Miller is set as a social worker who gets into a conflict with her. Diana Maria Riva, Jonathan Sadowski and Noureen DeWulf also star in the 20th Century Fox Television-based hour, which Anthony Russo and Joe Russo are directing from a script by creator Paul Attanasio.
FOURPLAY (ABC) - Josh Cooke, late of the CBS comedy pilot "My Best Friend's Girl," has been tapped for a lead role on the comedy pilot, about two men - one straight (Cooke), one gay (Alan Tudyk) - who are lifelong best friends and business partners. David Kohan and Max Mutchick are behind the half-hour, which is based at Warner Bros. Television.
LAST OF THE NINTH (HBO) - Ray Winstone ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") and Jonah Lotan ("Generation Kill") have scored the lead roles in the pilot, a gritty drama set in 1972 in the New York Police Department, which is struggling with fiscal problems and allegations of corruption. Lotan will play Joe Dalton, a young Vietnam veteran who joins the NYPD as an undercover cop that's taken under the wing of veteran detective John Giglio (Winstone). Carl Franklin is directing the project from a script by co-creators/executive producers David Milch and Bill Clark.
THE PHILANTHROPIST (NBC) - Peter Horton ("Grey's Anatomy") has sign on to direct and executive produce the pilot for the upcoming drama, about a renegade billionaire who uses his wealth, connections and power to help people in need no matter the risks or costs. There he'll work alongside fellow executive producers David Eick and Charlie Corwin, following the exit of Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson. "Philanthropist" is based at Universal Media Studios.
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (FOX) - Scottish musician Shirley Manson, the lead singer of Garbage, is set to join the cast of the show's second season. She'll play Catherine Weaver, who's detailed in the casting notice as follows: "Mid 30s-Early 40s, Caucasian, the anti-Sarah Connor. CEO of a major corporation (but not Devil Wears Prada). Warm, earthy, and smart, the sort of woman that wears all white and walks around without shoes." Producers are also looking for another new regular, Becky ("18+ to play younger, any ethnicity. High school-aged teenage girl, beautiful with an edge but not mean."), however no casting has been announced.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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