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[07/22/08 - 06:49 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, July 22
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!


DAMAGES (FX) - Matthew Davis ("What About Brian") is the latest actor to join the cast of the show's second season, Entertainment Weekly reports. He'll play "a top-secret, recurring role" according to the report. Marcia Gay Harden, Mario Van Peebles, Timothy Olyphant and William Hurt previously signed onto the series earlier this year.


DOLLHOUSE (FOX) - Joss Whedon has opted to shoot a new first episode of the midseason drama. "I've been busying myself with a little something I like to call DOLLHOUSE. Finishing a new episode. Finishing a new... here's the headline... FIRST episode," the creator posted to Whedonesque.com. He goes on to add, "Well, the idea to do a new first episode wasn't the network's. It was mine. I understood their consternation, and saw the gap between my style and their expectations, and I suggested I shoot a new ep and make the one I'd shot the second. It isn't going to be buried, like the pilot of Firefly. It's simply coming after another, slightly cleaner ep. And because unlike Firefly, it isn't a two hour epic which introduces everyone to each other, the onus isn't on the new ep to explain a million things."


THE L WORD (Showtime) - Elizabeth Berkley ("CSI: Miami") has scored an arc on the show's upcoming final season. She'll play "the straight girl that got away from Jennifer Beals' Bette in college," according to Entertainment Weekly. Berkley and Beals co-starred together in the 2005 feature "Roger Dodger."


NIGHT & DAY (A.K.A. UNTITLED JOEL SURNOW PROJECT) (TNT) - The cable channel has greenlit production on the drama pilot, "a fast-paced, gritty drama about the life of an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms." Joel Surnow and Todd Robinson are behind the hour, which they wrote and are executive producing. The previously untitled project was among the six dramas revealed as part of its development slate back in May (read the story).


NUMB3RS (CBS) - "Dexter" alum Keith Carradine has been cast in a three-episode arc on the show's upcoming season, reports Entertainment Weekly. He'll play the Fed who stands in the way of Charlie Epps (David Krumholtz) regaining his security clearance. Charlie lost said clearance in the season finale after leaking "sensitive" information in protest over the FBI's treatment of a fellow professor.


PURGATORY (Comedy Central, New!) - Comedian Bill Burr has landed a pilot commitment from the cable channel for a topical news show (a la Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly) which would take on a single theme or topic and explore it through his point of view using standup, sketch and digital shorts. Burr is executive producing the half-hour alongside 3 Arts Entertainment's Jeff Cesario and David Becky. Like "Mind of Mencia" and "The Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show," the "pilot" will actually be a presentation at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles after which the network will decide whether to move forward with a series order. Burr is no stranger to the cable channel as his latest stand-up special ("Bill Burr: Why Do I Do This?") is set to air on Sunday, August 31.


Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters





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· CSI: MIAMI (CBS)
· DAMAGES (AUDIENCE)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
· DOLLHOUSE (FOX)
· FIREFLY (FOX)
· L WORD, THE (SHOWTIME)
· MIND OF MENCIA (COMEDY CENTRAL)
· NAKED TRUCKER & T-BONES SHOW, THE (COMEDY CENTRAL)
· NIGHT & DAY (TNT)
· NUMB3RS (CBS)
· PURGATORY (COMEDY CENTRAL)
· WHAT ABOUT BRIAN (ABC)





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